Cost Impact of Generic Substitution in Chronic Disease Prescriptions
Department of Pharmacology, Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Corresponding Author: Chatterjee S, Doctus Journal of Pharmacology.
Abstract
Out-of-pocket medicine expenditure is a leading cause of catastrophic health spending in India. We modelled the cost of 3,400 chronic disease prescriptions as issued, and again with every branded item replaced by the lowest-priced quality-assured generic equivalent. Median monthly cost fell by 61%, with the largest absolute savings in prescriptions containing a statin, a proton pump inhibitor or an antidiabetic combination. Savings were markedly smaller where fixed-dose combinations had no generic equivalent, which accounted for a fifth of prescriptions. Expanding the generic list to cover commonly used combinations would deliver more benefit than further price control on single molecules.
Keywords
Generic Substitution; Medicine Cost; Out-of-Pocket Expenditure; Chronic Disease; Fixed-Dose Combination; Health Economics
How to Cite
Chatterjee S and Kundu A. “Cost Impact of Generic Substitution in Chronic Disease Prescriptions”. Doctus Journal of Pharmacology 1.12 (2025): 88-99.
Copyright and Licence
© 2025 Chatterjee S. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.