Payers Saved Billions Annually With Generic Market Competition for Statins

Generic competition for statins resulted in savings of approximately $11.9 billion annually across all US payers, according to new findings published in JAMA Network Open.

The study involved data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from the start of 2002 through the end of 2018. Researchers analyzed the economic impact after market entry of five generic statins: atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, simvastatin, lovastatin, and pravastatin.

On average, payers purchased 21.35 million statins annually (95% CI, 16.7-25.5 million), resulting in an average total annual cost of $24.5 billion (95% CI, $18.2-$28.8 billion).

After generic statins entered the market, “The number of brand-name statin purchases decreased by 90.9% nationally (95% CI, 56%-98%) and 27.4% individually (95% CI, 13%-40%).”

“According to the Center of Drug Evaluation and Research estimates, the average generic drug price is 49% of the corresponding brand-name drug,” researchers wrote. “When 6 or more generic competitors exist, the reduction is up to 95%.”

Individual cost savings among different types of payers included:

• $370.00 (95% CI, $430.70-$309.20) for private insurers;
• $281.00 (95% CI, $346.80-$215.30) for Medicare;
• $72.34 (95% CI, $95.22-$49.46) for Medicaid; and
• $211.90 (95% CI, $231.20-$192.50) for out-of-pocket spending.

Medicare saw a 98.6% overall decrease in spending on statins after the end of market exclusivity, which researchers noted was a higher decrease than previous estimates suggested.

Among all payers, the annual spending decrease was $925.60 per individual (95% CI, $1005.00-$846.40) and $11.9 billion overall (95% CI, $10.9-$13.0 billion).

“The encouragement of full generic competition and early access to generic medication options should be prioritized in future regulatory actions,” authors concluded.

Reference:
Lin S, Baumann K, Zhou C, Zhou W, Cuellar AE, Xue H. Trends in use and expenditures for brand-name statins after introduction of generic statins in the US, 2002-2018. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(11):e2135371. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.35371