| ABSTRACT Objective:To analyze the consumption volume, value and price of originators and generics of cardiovascular medicines in public hospitals, taking this as a case study, to produce evidence and to propose policy recommendations for the promotion of generics uptake in China. Methods: We extracted data from the medicines database of the Southern Medicines Economics Institute of China Food and Drug Administration and Beijing medicines procurement management platform. We included all public hospitals in Beijing (85 secondary and tertiary hospitals) and 11 cardiovascular medicines, analyzed the proportions of consumption volume and value, and price ratio of the originators and generics, and estimated the potential cost savings from substituting the originals with equivalent generics. Results:The average ratios of consumption volume and value of the originals and generics of 11 targeted cardiovascular medicines were 81.07% and 18.93%, and 74.68% and 25.32% respectively. The price ratio of the originals and generics ranged between 1.01 and 5.77, the mean ratio was 2.09, and the median ratio was 1.61. There could be a total of CNY 410 million potential cost savings if the originators were substituted with equivalent generics, and the rate of cost savings was 59.21%. Conclusion:The market share of the generics of the 11 targeted cardiovascular medicines in Beijing public hospitals was low in 2015. Substituting originators with equivalent quality secured generics in public hospitals could save huge medicines costs. It was recommended to speed up the consistency evaluation of the quality and efficacy of generics, and to strengthen the public confidence of generics, so as to establish the generic substitution system as soon as possible, which aims to promote the procurement, prescription and use of generics with health insurance payment policies as a leverage, and to contain the rapid growth of medicines expenditures. |
