Estimating Savings Opportunities From Therapeutic Substitutions of High-Cost Generic Medications.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Use of generics is generally understood as a cost-saving practice. However, pharmacy benefit managers have an incentive to place higher-priced generic drugs on insurers' drug formularies to profit by creating a large difference between the price negotiated with pharmacies and the price paid by insurers (what is known as spread pricing).

Objective

To examine price differentials and savings potential between high-cost generics and corresponding therapeutic alternatives of same clinical value and lower cost.

Design, setting, and participants

This cross-sectional analysis examined the top 1000 generics in Colorado's all-payer claims database (CO-APCD) in 2019. High-cost generics and lower-cost generic therapeutic alternatives of same clinical value constituted

SUBMITTER: Socal MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9631106 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature