|
NEW YORK (AP) - Patients and health insurance providers could save at least $71 billion over 10 years if there was a regulatory mechanism that allowed for the marketing of generic biotech medicines, according to a study being released Thursday.
Currently there is no legal pathway that allows generic drug makers to produce biotech medicines, so the pricey treatments, which are derived from a living source such as proteins, have never had to compete with copycat products that drive pharmaceutical costs lower.
Controlling the cost of biotech medicines has become a top priority for those providing health insurance because the cost of such treatments is dramatically increasing. Biotech treatments now account for 25 percent to 30 percent of a company's overall drug costs, according to pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts Inc., which conducted the study.
|