Advertise With UsAdvertise on our extensive network of industry websites and newsletters.
Get the PBR newsletterSign up to our free email to get all the latest PBR
news.Express Scripts, the pharmacy benefit manager, has revealed that inspite of rise in drug costs, the insured US consumers's on average spent less for their prescription drugs in 2007, reported PharmaTimes.
Subscribe to our email newsletter
According to the firm’s annual drug trend report, the average copayment paid by insured patients fell down to $13.20 in 2007 from $13.45 in 2006, even though the total cost of a prescription increased from $55.01 in 2006 to $55.93 in 2007. The report attributes this fall in drug payments to the increased use of generics.
The report also found that during 2002-07, patient copayments for generic drugs increased from $6.71 to $7.57, while for preferred branded drugs they rose from $14.66 to $19.18. And for non-preferred branded medicines the increase was $11.28, from $17.16 to $28.44. In addition, the US consumers’s share of the total cost of the average prescription dropped from 24.5% in 2006 to 23.6% in 2007.
Emily Cox, senior director of research at Express Scripts, said: “We process more than one million prescriptions every day and 63.7% are now for a generic drug versus 42% in 2002. When more generics are used, benefit plan sponsors can control plan costs without shifting these costs to consumers.”