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TRENTON, N.J. — Finally, a little good health-care news for consumers: U.S. prices for generic prescription drugs, which already cost as little as one-third what their brand-name cousins do, have been getting cheaper and likely will keep doing so.
The causes? The ultra-low prices for generic prescriptions offered by giant retailers and drugstore chains and intense competition among the many generic drugmakers fighting for sales, according to health-information firm IMS Health.
For the year ended in September, generics accounted for nearly 64 percent of all prescriptions filled in the U.S.
By 2012, brand-name drugs, with $139 billion in annual sales in the world’s top eight markets, will face new generics.
