Background Developed countries use common competition to contain pharmaceutical expenditure. and 0.98 and the volume price index of originators to generics was 1.63. The potential savings of individuals from switching A 803467 originator medicines to generics is definitely 65%. Conclusion The market share of the generics was decreasing and the weighted imply price kept increasing in face of the rigid price control. Under the background A 803467 of private hospitals A 803467 both prescribing and dispensing medicines China’s comprehensive healthcare policy makers should take steps from supply and demand sides to promote the consumption of common medicines. indicates the dose unit per package (or strength of product). The prices of the individual and overall 12 products were assayed by adopting a weighted mean price which were calculated by dividing market value by market Mouse monoclonal to HDAC4 volume. For the price assessment of common and originator medicines in 2011 the price index (shows the total volume (DDDs) of a medicine and poriginator or pgenerics shows the weighted mean price (DDDc Pw). We required six months as the analysis period because one year is too long to express the volume switch and one quarter is too short to remove possible anomalies. And we used “1H” to symbolize the 1st half 12 months and “2H” for the second half 12 months. Results Market share of common and originator medicines The market share for volume of common medicines decreased from approximately 50% in the 1st half 12 months A 803467 of 2006 to 34.37% in the second half year of 2011 and that of originator medicines increased to 65.63% (Figure?1). A continuous decrease in generics market share could be observed in the early years until it reached its stable platform in the 1st half 12 months of 2008 and managed thin fluctuations in the following years. Number 1 Market shares of originator and common cardiovascular medicines from 2006 to 2011. The market shares?were displayed with 100% stacked column chart. Each panel shows the percentage of originator and common medicines and the cumulative proportion … The development of the market share for value was more complicated. The value share of common medicines also steadily decreased in the early years until it reached its valley ground (23.52%) in the first half of 2008 and then it increased slowly to 31.33%. Price and use development The overall weighted mean price (DDDc) and total volume (DDDs) of 12 cardiovascular medicines from 2006 to 2011 were calculated and offered in Number?2. The half-year total volume of common and originator medicines increased continuously but the increase rate of originator medicines was much higher than that of the generics. The weighted mean price of generics was also inside a rising channel in contrast with the originator medicines which attributed to the razor-sharp price decrease of Simvastatin by its manufacturer Merck Co. to compete for market share in the end of 2009. Figure 2 Overall weighted imply price (DDDc) and volume (DDDs) A 803467 of 12 cardiovascular medicines from 2006 to 2011. Price assessment and potential savings Because some of the products were not purchased especially common medicines in the early study years we used the latest data (2011) to compare the price of common and originator medicines. We used the proportion of the individual volume in the total volume as the weighted index and determined the price assessment index. The overall prices of the 12 common and originator medicines are displayed as DDDc in Table?2. The ratios of DDDc of common to originator medicines ranged from 0.34 to 0.98. The volume index of originator to generics was 1.63. Therefore the price of originator medicines is 63% higher than generics. Table 2 Price comparisons of 12 common and originator medicines in 2011 (DDDc RMB) For those 12 brand-name medicines common medicines were available in the identical form with lower prices. We could estimate the potential savings from more consistent use of common medications for each specific medication in the next method: