Spotlight on the future of generics

Generic drugs play a vital role in ensuring affordable access to healthcare and the future sustainability of medicines development.

The region’s generics drugs market is assuming ever-greater importance as governments and other health authorities promote the use of generic drugs as a way to contain healthcare costs and ensure funds are available for newer waves of innovative medicines.

The Spotlight on the Future of Generics presents a series of resources that have been jointly developed by pharmaphorum and Accord Healthcare to advance the debate about generic drugs, biosimilars and affordable healthcare.

As the OECD has noted, all EU countries see the development of generic markets as a good opportunity to increase efficiency in pharmaceutical spending, but many do not fully exploit the potential of generics. At the opposite ends of the spectrum, the Organisation points to countries like the UK and Germany, where generics account for more than 70% of the volume of pharmaceuticals sold, compared with Italy and Greece, where they account for less than 20% of the market.

In this pharmaphorum Spotlight, we present insight and analysis on the future of generics and how they will continue to ensure affordable medicines within Europe as pharmaceutical industry marries innovation and generics.

The future role of biosimilars within healthcare has taken great strides in the last couple of years and there’s much more progress still to be made, and we’ll look at some lessons drawn from cancer biosimilars and biologics.

Moving beyond the obvious affordability offered by generics, we will also throw light on understanding the drug lifecycle and investigate opportunities for updating medicine regulation systems in these changing times.

And as the whole pharmaceutical industry works to prove its credentials for patient-centricity, another focus for the Spotlight will be to look at where generic drugs have made a difference and what role they could have to play in increasing patient engagement.

Ensuring patients have the medicines they need has been the driving force at Accord since we began manufacturing in the UK in 2008. Now we operate in over 85 countries worldwide, that ambition has only strengthened and Accord Healthcare is one of the fastest growing generic pharmaceutical and biosimilar companies in Europe. Headquartered in the UK, Accord has an extensive supply chain through its four UK based sites, helping to ensure a consistent supply of life-enhancing medicines for patients, whilst supporting customers to react quickly to dynamic market conditions. www.accord-healthcare.co.uk