GPhA Calls AARP Study on Generic Drug Prices ‘Excellent News for Consumers’

ARLINGTON, Va., Aug 16 /PRNewswire/ — Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) President and CEO Kathleen Jaeger today called a new AARP study showing that generic drug prices held steady through March 2005 excellent news for consumers seeking affordable health care.

“The new AARP study confirms that generic medicines clearly are the better option for consumers, employers and public and private health care purchasers. The data support what we have stated for years: generic medicines are improving lives for less,” said GPhA President and CEO Kathleen Jaeger.

The AARP report reveals little change in manufacturer list prices for widely used generic drugs during the 12 months ending in March 2005. By contrast, the annual rate increase in the price of brand medicines (6.6%) outpaced the rate of general inflation (3.0%).

“Other studies have shown that the more consumers understand about the health and economic benefits offered by generics, the more likely they are to use them. In fact, in pharmacies around the country, more than half of all prescriptions are filled with an affordable generic medicine.

“Generic medicines provide the same medicine and the same therapeutic results at a substantially lower cost,” Jaeger concluded.

In 2004, for example, the average price of a prescription dispensed with a generic medicine was $28.74, while the average price of a brand name drug was $96.01. That’s a difference of $67.27 per prescription when the generic is substituted.

The AARP Study is available online at http://www.aarp.org/research/health/drugs/aresearch-import-869-2004-06– IB69.html.

GPhA represents the manufacturers and distributors of finished generic pharmaceuticals, manufacturers and distributors of bulk active pharmaceutical chemicals, and suppliers of other goods and services to the generic drug industry. Generics represent 53% of the total prescriptions dispensed in the United States, but only 12% of all dollars spent on prescription drugs. For further information, please contact GPhA at 703-647-2480, or visit our web site at http://www.gphaonline.org/.

Generic Pharmaceutical Association

CONTACT: Andrea Hofelich, +1-703-647-2495

Web site: http://www.gphaonline.org/