Generics make a major contribution to the European drug supply, according to a report by the by Germany-based Institute for Healthcare and Social Research (IGES).
In most European countries, the market share of generic medicines by volume is more than 40%, see Figure 1. Germany, which is the biggest pharmaceutical market in Europe, had the highest volume share of generics of 73% in 2014. While the UK, which falls in fourth place in Europe, the generics volume share in 2014 was 66%. However, the volume shares differ noticeably among the European countries, with Greece having the lowest generics volume share of 27%.
Figure1: European generics market share 2014
The differences between European countries are attributed by IGES to their different institutional settings and different policies to promote generics substitution or international non-proprietary name (INN) prescribing [1].
The share of generics by value is in most European countries distinctly lower than in volume. The exception to this is Greece, where the generics share by value is 19% and by volume 27%, a difference of only 8%. The largest differences between the generics share by volume and by value were found in Denmark (46%) and Sweden (42%).
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Reference
1. Vogler S. The impact of pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies on generics uptake: implementation of policy options on generics in 29 European countries─an overview. Generics and Biosimilars Initiative Journal (GaBI Journal). 2012;1(2):93-100. doi:10.5639/gabij.2012.0102.020
Source: www.gabionline.net
