Controversy Associated with Drug Prices - Essay Sample

Healthcare management has been associated with various controversial themes and topics crucial in solving the problem of service delivery. Drug prices are among the controversial issues concerning the cost differences between a brand and a generic name. It creates the need to proactively involve patients in service delivery, educational awareness, and political activism for an individual in need of a safety net for health. The utilization of generics in the health service has become controversial (IGMPI, n.d.). A study demonstrated that the percentage of the generic cardiovascular drugs present in the market was 24% (IGMPI, n.d.). Published articles of about 25 years of random clinical tests that compare generic and brand-name cardiovascular medication addressing editorials associated with the generic substitution for brand-name medicines. Forty-three columns were written on the replacement of generic drugs, and approximately 53% of the authors posed the dark side of using generic medicine (IGMPI, n.d.). Generic medicines are mostly purchased at a low price compared to brand name medicines, and historically, the costs of generics minimally increased than the brand name drugs. Patients who buy innovator medicines from private outlets purchase them at a considerably higher charge compared to generic alternatives (IGMPI, n.d.). Prescription drugs rapidly raise the percentage of the overall medical expenditure, which covers costs. With the different changing prices of the drugs, they influence patient affordability of long-term treatment drugs affecting the drug prices in health care management. The purpose of this paper is to address the controversy associated with drug prices comparing generic and brand-name drugs.

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Neutral Stance

The management activities on prescription drugs focusing on the Medicare price of all medicines addressed generic drug competition. Both the generic and the brand name medications possess the same amount of active ingredients. In terms of pharmacological class, there is a growing degree of generic versus branded drugs. For the unit and packaging of generic drugs, their prices were lower compared to innovative products. The available innovator drug costs are higher than the generic drugs equivalents for lipid-lowering, cardiovascular, and antibiotics drugs. More so, the unit price for an innovative brand of medicines proved to be higher compared to the generic medication demonstrating the insignificant impact of the number of units and packaging from diverse manufacturers and suppliers (IGMPI, n.d.). The shift leading to the generic drug used had reduced to half the rate of increase in prescription drug prices. The rapid generic penetration in the market is facilitated by the cost per prescription, which is lower for generic drugs (Sheingold & Nguyen, 2014). Copayment and additional benefits activities are shifting utilization to favored bands and generic medicines (Sheingold & Nguyen, 2014). The generic drugs result in several adverse reactions, which means the medication can facilitate health concerns instead of preventing them from linking with the patient’s biology. For instance, a lactose intolerant patient switching to a generic drug with the excipient based on lactose would likely encounter stomach problems leading to minimal absorption of the drug. However, the adverse reaction is not limited to changing a brand name for a generic medicine because the same experience can occur when an individual swats a generic drug for a brand name or even going from one generic drug to another (Abramson, 2019).

Pros of Generic Drugs

Generic drugs were developed as less costly alternatives to brand-name drugs since they pose similar active components assisted with brand counterparts having the same clinical influence on the individual using them. The affordable aspect of the generic drugs is associated with significantly less investment than new originator medicines due to the lack of recouping the cost of pre-clinical and clinical studies (Dunne et al., 2013). Generic drug availability saves insurance companies and patients money, also increasing the adherence of patients to prescription (Abramson, 2019). The brand name drugs are usually expensive compared to the generic version of the drugs, although they have identical therapeutic influence (Fischer & Avorn, 2003). Research indicates that about 20.5% of patients do not adhere to the brand-name medicine prescription because of costs since the costs of the generic drugs are about 80% lower than the branded drugs (Abramson, 2019). More so, 90% of the generic medicine’s copay costs lower than 20 dollars, and only 39% of the branded products cost that minimum (Abramson, 2019). With the cheaper option of generic drugs, insurance companies favor using the more affordable option in their plans. More so, savings could be achieved in the Medicaid drug package through the widespread utilization of generic drugs (Fischer & Avorn, 2003). The inexpensive nature of the generic medicines increases access to health care of patients, and the availability of the same active ingredient as the brand name makes it similarly effective as its counterpart.

Cons of Generic Drugs

There is a potential reduction in the efficacy of the generic drugs and harmful side effects associated with generic drugs. The bioequivalence nature related to drugs also affects the working of generic medications. With the cheaper route used in developing the medicine, less regulation and research are addressed to an inactive drug ingredient, including sugars, antioxidants, dyes, detergents, fillers, and binders (Abramson, 2019). Although their impact on the functioning of the drug in the body, the inactive components vary widely between generic and brand name and between the generic drugs (Abramson, 2019). There is a minimal study conducted on testing whether all the inactive ingredients are inactive using modern techniques. Awareness needs to be created on generic preparation containing inactive ingredients on the possibility of the genetic formulation causing issues to patients having no problem tolerating the original research. The limited knowledge on the activity of inactive ingredients creates a barrier in prescribing the cheaper generic drugs and influences access to health care.

Additionally, the manufacturers of generic medicines are not required to pay a similar amount of money for marketing, trials, patents, or research exceeding millions of dollars for each product (IGMPI, n.d.). The generic product is extensively prescribed compared to brand names. Studies indicate that generic drugs can result in an anti-placebo impact of problematic side effects or worsening symptoms. Also, there is no randomized control study supporting the notion that generic medications contain lower quality or are less safe; hence they are perceived as inferior to brand names, which affects the response of the patient.

Conclusion

There is a temporal connection among the use of health resources, less clinical effectiveness, lower persistence, and lack of adherence. The use of generic medication is linked with the decrease in the therapeutic control goal of treatment. The changes in the drug appearance of drugs can result in patients losing confidence in the effectiveness of the safety of generic prescription influencing non-adherence to treatment, mostly in multiple medications of patients and chronic diseases. The low-priced nature of the generic drugs increases access to health care of patients, and the availability of the same active ingredient as the brand name makes it similarly effective as its counterpart. With the potentially harmful side effects and limited drug efficacy, the FDA, through its regulation procedures, confirms the generic drugs are effective and safe similar to the branded substitutes.

References

Abramson, A. (2019, July 23). Are generic drugs as good as name brand? Medium. https://elemental.medium.com/are-generic-drugs-as-good-as-name-brand-61729ae1619a

Dunne, S., Shannon, B., Dunne, C., & Cullen, W. (2013). A review of the differences and similarities between generic drugs and their originator counterparts, including economic benefits associated with the usage of generic medicines, using Ireland as a case study. BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/2050-6511-14-1

Fischer, M. A., & Avorn, J. (2003). Economic consequences of underuse of generic drugs: Evidence from Medicaid and implications for prescription drug benefit plans. Health Services Research, 38(4), 1051-1064. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.00162

IGMPI. (n.d.). GENERIC VERSUS BRANDED MEDICINES AVAILABLE ON THE LOCAL MARKET | Page 2 | PharmaTutor. PharmaTutor | Pharmacy Infopedia. https://www.pharmatutor.org/articles/generic-versus-branded-medicines-available-on-the-local-market?page=1

Sheingold, S., & Nguyen, N. (2014). Impacts of generic competition and benefit management practices on spending for prescription drugs: Evidence from Medicare’s part D benefit. Medicare & Medicaid Research Review, 4(1), E1-E15. https://doi.org/10.5600/mmrr.004.01.a01