US seniors pay more for generic meds while prices continue to fall

The USA’s Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM), the trade association that represents generic and biosimilar drug manufacturers, commented on an analysis released by Avalere showing that Medicare plans increase patient costs for generic medicines by moving those medicines to more expensive formulary tiers.

In 2011, 73% of generic drugs analyzed by Avalere were placed on Tier 1, which has a zero-dollar co-pay on average. 10 years later, only 15% of those drugs were still on Tier 1, despite the average price of those medicines falling by 38% between 2011 and 2019.

“Despite overall prices for generic medicines continuing to drop, Avalere's analysis shows that prices paid by seniors in Medicare plans continue to increase due to health plans moving generics to higher tiers with higher co-pays,” said David Gaugh, interim president and chief executive of AAM.