European austerity measures lead change in generic drug pricing

Generic drugs are expected to help countries cope with health care cuts brought about by strict austerity measures, according to a new report by business intelligence experts GBI Research. The new report suggests that lower priced generic drugs help control costs, saving patients, drug manufacturers, retailers and the government a considerable amount of money.

In the USA, the average price for a brand-name drug prescription is $84.20, while it costs only $30.60 for a generic drug prescription. Generic drugs help consumers in the USA save approximately $8 billion to $10 billion a year at retail pharmacies, and many European countries are looking to increase their use of generic drugs, implementing measures to do so in an attempt to control increasing costs.

The Primary Care Trust (PCT) in the UK encourages physicians to prescribe low-cost generic drugs in order to save costs, while the Spanish government demands that doctors prescribe generics and pharmacists dispense the cheapest generic available, in order to save 2.4 billion euros ($3.17 billion) a year.