Comparative effectiveness of branded vs. generic versions of antihypertensive, lipid-lowering and hypoglycemic substances: a population-wide cohort study.

ABSTRACT: Generic medications offer substantial potential cost savings to health systems compared to their branded counterparts. In Europe and the US, they are only approved if they are bioequivalent to the respective originator product. Nevertheless, the lack of clinical outcomes is sometimes used as the reason for hesitancy in prescribing generics. We performed an observational retrospective study on 17 branded vs. generic pharmaceutical substances for the treatment of hypertension/heart failure, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes mellitus in a dataset of 9,413,620 insured persons, representing nearly the full population of Austria, from 2007 to 2012. We compared generic vs. branded medications using hazard ratios for all-cause death and major adverse cardiac and cardiovascular events (MACCE) as outcome

SUBMITTER: Tian Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7136234 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature