63 out of every 100 dispensed medications are generics – but they only account for 29 percent of the expenditure.

18.08.2010 12:46

63 out of every 100 prescription drug packages dispensed in pharmacies are generics. However, statutory health insurance (GKV) only has to spend 29 percent of its drug expenditures on these modern, high-quality, and affordable medications. This is according to market data from January to May 2010, recently published by the industry association Pro Generika.

The reason for this is the large number of generic drug manufacturers, which has led to intense competition among them in terms of quality and price for years. And because generic drugs are significantly cheaper in pharmacies, with an average price of €19.51, compared to the off-patent original brand-name products (€38.47), they provide substantial relief to health insurance funds. In the first five months of this year alone, the statutory health insurance system (GKV) saved €3.336 billion through generic drugs, even without considering the price reductions from rebate agreements. Extrapolated to the entire year, this results in savings of approximately €8 billion for 2010 – equivalent to 0.8 percentage points in the statutory health insurance contribution rate.

More information on the current development of statutory health insurance drug expenditures can be found in the market data service of Pro Generika, which the industry association has now made available with the updated figures for May 2010 at [link to Pro Generika market data service]. http://www.progenerika.de/de/generika/data/marktdaten/ims-mai10.html The figures are based on calculations by the independent market research institutes IMS HEALTH and INSIGHT Health.