A recent study found patients who take generic statins as opposed to name brand are more likely to adhere to prescription guidelines and have a lower rate of cardiovascular events and death.
Statins are the most frequently prescribed medications in the United State and work to reduce cardiovascular events, Brigham and Women's Hospital reported.
"Our study is the first to investigate whether generic versus brand-name statins play a direct role in improving health outcomes," said Joshua J. Gagne, PharmD, ScD, assistant professor of medicine in BWH's Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics and lead author of this study. "Patients will only get the full clinical benefit of their medications if they take them, and our study found that patients are more likely to take generic statins than brand-name versions, which have a higher associated cost."
To make their findings the researchers used electronic data from the medical and pharmacy claims abd looked at Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or older with prescription drug coverage between the years of 2006 and 2008. The team compared adherence to statin therapy with instances of hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome, stroke, or mortality. The researchers found patients taking generic statins were more likely to adhere to the prescribed treatment and had an eight percent lower rate of cardiovascular events and death.
"Generic drug use has been widely recognized to reduce patient out-of-pocket costs and payer spending. Among patients in our study, the mean copayment for the generic statin was $10 and $48 for brand-name statins," Gagne said. . "Our finding that adherence is greater with generic statins is consistent with other studies that have shown a direct relation between higher copayments and lower adherence."
The researchers concluded in the setting of tiered copayments in typical pharmacy benefit design, generic statins seem to be associated with lower cost and higher adherence.
The findings were published Sept. 15 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
