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VIEWPOINT

Generic drugs in cardiology: will they reduce health care costs?

^* University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Manuscript received September 5, 2003; accepted February 5, 2004.

^* Reprint requests and correspondence: Dr. Bertram Pitt, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, 3214 Taubman Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
Bpitt{at}umich.edu

The introduction of generic drugs should lower health care costs by reducing the price of drugs. The realization of this goal may, however, not be fully achieved: generic drugs may be underused or misused in comparison to prescription drugs because of a lack of ongoing postgraduate physician education. More importantly, there is little incentive to explore new indications for soon-to-be generic drugs and drugs that are already generic. The failure to explore new indications for soon-to-be and existing generic drugs may result in a missed opportunity to further reduce health care costs. Thus, the apparent savings resulting from the introduction of generic drugs may not be fully realized unless the government and other third-party payers take a more active role in postgraduate drug education and investigation.

Abbreviations and Acronyms   ACC/AHA = American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association   ACE = angiotensin-converting enzyme   HF = heart failure   LV = left ventricular   RALES = Randomized Aldactone Evaluation Study