New Research Published on Generic Competition

As the FDA looks to boost generic competition, a new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) suggests that competition among generic drugmakers slows over time, potentially leading to higher prices for older treatments and drug shortages. The analysis authored by Ernst Berndt and Stephen Murphy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Rena Conti from the University of Chicago, reveals that generic drug prices have risen by a statistically significant margin over time as the rate of new entrants to the market has slowed and the number of firms competing for individual drugs has fallen over time. After 2007, the authors say the median number of competitors for an individual generic dropped from between two and three to just two through 2016, with 40% of generics being made by a sole manufacturer. Implications of the Research The findings of this paper have several implications. First, the research indicates that the generic drug markets in the U.S. are supplied by monopolists. Some therapeutic classes and molecule formulations appear to be long characterized by this market structure. With such limited suppliers of generic drugs observed over the study’s time frame and high levels of concentration, the researchers wonder why prices of generic drugs and associated revenues have not risen more dramatically over the time they have observed. Another implication of the paper’s findings is that while the Waxman-Hatch Act is founded on...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs