Medicare Spending on Brand-name Combination Medications vs Their Generic Constituents

JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association
Chana A SacksJerry Avorn

Abstract

Brand-name combination drugs can be more expensive than the sum of their components, especially when the constituent products are available as generic medications. The potential savings that could be achieved using generic components is not known. To estimate the additional cost to Medicare of prescribing brand-name combination medications instead of generic constituents. Retrospective analysis for 2011 through 2016 using the Medicare data set of Part D beneficiaries prescribed any of the 1500 medications that accounted for the highest total spending in 2015. Brand-name combination drugs that had identical or therapeutically equivalent generic constituents were included. Brand-name, oral combination medications with constituents available either as generic drugs or therapeutically equivalent generic substitutes. The estimated difference between the amount spent by Medicare on brand-name combination drugs and the estimated amount that would have been spent on substitutable generic components. Among the 1500 medications evaluated, 29 brand-name combination medications were separated into 3 mutually exclusive categories: constituents available as generic medications at identical doses (n = 20), generic constituents at different do...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 25, 2018·Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics·Ravi GuptaJoseph S Ross
Jan 15, 2020·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·Jonathan J DarrowAaron S Kesselheim
Aug 26, 2020·Journal of the American Geriatrics Society·Michael FralickChana A Sacks
Aug 14, 2019·Annals of Internal Medicine·Alexander C EgilmanJoseph S Ross
Mar 20, 2019·The Journal of Infectious Diseases·Sydney Costantini, Rochelle P Walensky
Jun 25, 2020·BMJ : British Medical Journal·Jonathan J DarrowAaron S Kesselheim
Apr 1, 2020·Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy·Victoria L BartlettJoseph S Ross
Apr 25, 2020·Value in Health : the Journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research·Michael FralickAaron S Kesselheim
Apr 30, 2021·International Journal of Clinical Practice·Dilara BayramAhmet Akici
Jul 23, 2021·Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics·Cheng JiangXin Jiang
Dec 10, 2021·Circulation. Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes·Iris MaAlexander T Sandhu

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