Generics Reduced Europe's Medicine Bill by 61% in 2014, Says Report

Without generic medicines, healthcare systems and patients across Europe would have had to pay an estimated additional €100 billion in 2014, according to a new report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. The report observes that governments and payers "could likely not have met the growing demand for medicines over the past 10 years" without savings from the off-patent sector.

The Role of Generic Medicines in Sustaining Healthcare Systems: A European Perspective says that the off-patent medicines industry supplies over 90% of the volume demand for medicines, while contributing just 47% of the cost. But there are potential offsets to the benefits "including the risk of medicine shortages, the impact on industrial policy and the supply chain, and issues of stakeholder trust".

The report concludes that the continued health and level of contribution of the generics medicine industry "is not a foregone conclusion", however. Its continued contribution will depend "maintaining an environment that is conducive to an increasing use of generic medicines through a proactive social agenda and enlisting the support of multiple stakeholders."

To access the report, click here.