Drug swap drives down costs for US Medicare

Therapeutic drug substitutions have the potential to double or even triple annual cost savings compared with savings achieved with generic substitutions, according to O Kenrik Duru and colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

Therapeutic drug substitutions involve the use of less expensive substitutes that are not equivalent but have a similar treatment effect as the original medication. Their work estimates the magnitude of potential savings with drug substitution in Medicare Part D plans in the USA. The study appears in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, published by Springer.

Medicare Part D provides drug coverage for almost 28 million people. Beneficiaries take on average five medications and fill more than 30 prescriptions every year. Although the burden of rising out-of-pocket drug costs is likely to ease as a result of changes to Part D coverage, additional strategies to reduce drug costs, including out-of-pocket, health plan and government subsidy costs, are still very much needed.