Diffusion of Generic Drugs and Incentive Policies: The Effect of Medical Fee Revision in FY 2012 on Reducing Drug Costs

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the effects of incentive policies, including general name prescriptions im­plemented in 2012 for the Japanese antihypertensive market. The following three points were revealed through this analysis. (1) Incentive policies in 2012 increased the usage of generic drugs by 7.7%, with expanded use of generic drugs at hospitals and clinics in particular. (2) Analysis by prefecture revealed geographical differences in terms of not only the use of generic drugs but also the effects of the policy. A positive correlation had observed between the effects of the policy and the use of generic drugs in the past; namely, in areas where generic drugs had been used proactively in or before 2012, the policy tended to have a greater impact. (3) Considering differences in patient attributes at the time of switching from brand name drugs to generic drugs, there was a decrease of slightly more than 1 % in drug costs (approximately 12 billion yen/year) that would have been spent in the entire antihypertensive drug market. This was a more than 30% higher reduction in cost compared with not taking differences in patient attributes into account. This result suggests the importance of considering differences in patient attributes when estimating financial effects. Furthermore, the additional expenditures incurred by implementing incentive policies in 2012 are estimated to be 3.0 billion yen, making it clear that a substantial saving of 8.8 billion yen was achieved through incentive policies.