제네릭 진입이 약품비에 미치는 영향 분석

Abstract

General expectation on generics is that they will bring about substantial savings of drug expenditures by substituting their expensive branded counterparts. So far in Korea, not much empirical studies done in this area. Recent Korean policy intervention on generics is focusing on the price cut under the assumption that lowering price would directly be linked to curtailment of drug expenditures. This study aims to investigate the savings on drug spendings with the introduction of generics. NHI claims data of 6 substances - Pioglitazone, Voglibose, Metformin, Glimepiride, Tolterodine, Clopidogrel - are used to examine the expected impact of generics. Drug spendings of 2009 were compared with those of 2006. Each substance in the study is considered to have experienced strong generic adoption since 2006. The results are the followings. Generic introduction contributed to about 70%~216% increase in drug expenditures. The quantity effect was positive for all substances with increasing rate of 1.13~3.90. This implies that generic introduction created new market for survival rather than jumped into the original market to compete with. Drug mix effect of generic introduction in all substances in the range of 0.83~0.97, impling that original drugs had been slightly substituted for generics during the period under study. A salient feature of this study is that after the generic introduction, use of generics has increased along with their original counterpart. In other words, the volume of original drugs hasn't been decreased but increased instead. The only exception was the case of Pioglitazone. In conclusion, Even when the generics were actively introduced, we could not witness the fall in drug spendings. For drug spendings to be reduced, the policy such as reference pricing system could be considered as an option for the future.