Trends in retail prices of generic prescription drugs widely used by older Americans: 2017 year-end update
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Rx price watch
- Author(s):
- Schondelmeyer, Stephen W., author Purvis, Leigh, author
- Contributor(s):
- AARP (Organization), issuing body. Public Policy Institute (AARP (Organization)), issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : AARP Public Policy Institute, April 2019
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Drug Costs -- trends Drugs, Generic -- economics Prescription Drugs -- economics United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- This report is the latest in the AARP Public Policy Institute's Rx Price Watch series. Separate reports provide an analysis of retail price changes for widely used brand name and specialty drug products. The series also presents an analysis of the price changes for an overall market basket (i.e., brand name, generic, and specialty drug products combined) to reflect the overall market impact of drug price changes. Retail prices for widely used generic prescription drugs declined, on average, between 2006 and 2017. Between 2016 and 2017, retail prices for 390 generic prescription drugs widely used by older Americans, including Medicare beneficiaries, fell by an average of 9.3 percent. This followed two consecutive years (2015 and 2016) of substantial generic drug price decreases; the previous two consecutive years (2013 and 2014) saw increases in generic drug prices. In contrast, the general inflation rate rose by 2.1 percent in 2017. Generic drug prices have generally decreased over the past 15 years--the entire period during which the AARP Public Policy Institute has been publishing this report series. In 2017, the average cost of therapy for a generic prescription drug, based on the market basket in this study, was $365 per year. On average, older Americans take 4.5 prescription drugs every month. Consequently, older adults who use generic prescription drugs are likely to have experienced an average annual retail cost of drug therapy of $1,642 in 2017.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (ii, 23 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101769440 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101769440