Reports

Prescribing in Scotland increases but drug costs drop

Home/Reports | Posted 08/02/2013

Spending on medicine in Scotland was 11% less in 2011–2012 compared to spending in 2004–2005. This is despite the volume of prescriptions increasing by 33% during that time, according to a new report by Audit Scotland.

Pay-for-delay on the increase in the US

Home/Reports | Posted 24/01/2013

During 2012 the number of potentially anticompetitive patent dispute settlements between brand-name and generics companies in the US increased significantly compared with 2011 according to a new report released on 17 January 2013 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Patients persuade doctors to prescribe brand-name rather than generic drugs

Home/Reports | Posted 18/01/2013

Doctors are persuaded by patients to prescribe brand-name drugs when generic drugs are available. That is according to results of a survey carried out by researchers from the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital and published in JAMA Internal Medicine [1].

EU health spending in 2010 decreases for first time since 1975

Home/Reports | Posted 14/12/2012

Health spending fell across the EU in 2010, governments affected by continuing austerity measures tried to save money by reducing spending on health, according to Health at a Glance: Europe 2012, a new joint report by the OECD and the European Commission.

Generic drug prices decrease, brand-name prices increase

Home/Reports | Posted 07/12/2012

Over the last year brand-name drugmakers have raised prices by 13.3%, more than six times the consumer inflation rate. Generic drug prices, on the contrary; actually decreased by 21.9% during the same period.

Biosimilar policies in the UK

Home/Reports | Posted 30/11/2012

The UK was placed in 10th position in the global pharmaceutical markets in 2011 [1]. The UK also had some of the lowest prices for medicines in Europe [2]. Cost pressures and a well-developed generics market mean that the UK is likely to be a fast-adopter of biosimilars. However, relatively low usage of biologicals reduces the UK’s attractiveness as a biosimilars market [3].

Biosimilar policies in Spain

Home/Reports | Posted 16/11/2012

Spain is Europe’s fifth largest pharmaceutical market [1], however, in 2009, biosimilars accounted for less than 5% of the total biologicals market [2].

Future biosimilar targets

Home/Reports | Posted 26/10/2012

It seems biological medicines are set to play a major part in the pharmaceutical industry’s future and they already play a major part in its current growth [1]. At the moment, biologicals account for 10–15% of the pharmaceutical market. More than one-fifth of new medicines launched on the world market each year are now biotechnology-derived.

Generic medicine switches confuse patients and reduce adherence

Home/Reports | Posted 19/10/2012

Switching between generic medicines without explaining the reason to the patient can undermine trust in pharmacists, the Aston Medication Adherence Study (AMAS) has found [1].

EMA report shows generics applications down but biosimilars up

Home/Reports | Posted 19/10/2012

EMA’s mid-year report for 2012 has shown that the number of generics applications is much lower than the agency has predicted, while for biosimilars it is the opposite.