MONROE - Intermountain Healthcare is leading a collaboration with Ascension, SSM Health and Trinity Health, in consultation with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, to form a new, nonprofit generic drug company. The five organizations represent more than 450 hospitals around the U.S. This will make essential generic medications more available and affordable, bringing healthy competition to the market for generic drugs.
The new company intends to be an FDA-approved manufacturer and will manufacture generic drugs directly or sub-contract manufacturing to reputable contract manufacturing organizations, providing an affordable alternative to products from generic drug companies whose outrageous pricing practices are hurting consumers. The company also will seek to stabilize the supply of essential generic medications, many of which have fallen into chronic shortage, administered in hospitals. The initiative will result in lower costs and more predictable supplies of generic medicines, ensuring that patients and their medication needs come first.
Certain generic drug manufacturers have been criticized for unwarranted and arbitrary price increases and for creating artificial shortages, resulting in some generic drugs increasing in cost by more than 1,000 percent in just a few months for no reason. The actual costs of manufacturing and distributing generic drugs suggest that generic drug prices can be reduced to a fraction of their current costs.
Many of the problems in the U.S. generic drug market can be attributed to a reduction in the number of suppliers, consolidation of production volumes and a concentration of market pricing power, factors that are particularly problematic with older generic medications on which hospitals rely every day.
The formation of the new nonprofit generic drug company will be guided by an Advisory Committee that includes a roster of well-known experts from the pharmaceutical industry, business and government.
The new company intends to be an FDA-approved manufacturer and will manufacture generic drugs directly or sub-contract manufacturing to reputable contract manufacturing organizations, providing an affordable alternative to products from generic drug companies whose outrageous pricing practices are hurting consumers. The company also will seek to stabilize the supply of essential generic medications, many of which have fallen into chronic shortage, administered in hospitals. The initiative will result in lower costs and more predictable supplies of generic medicines, ensuring that patients and their medication needs come first.
Certain generic drug manufacturers have been criticized for unwarranted and arbitrary price increases and for creating artificial shortages, resulting in some generic drugs increasing in cost by more than 1,000 percent in just a few months for no reason. The actual costs of manufacturing and distributing generic drugs suggest that generic drug prices can be reduced to a fraction of their current costs.
Many of the problems in the U.S. generic drug market can be attributed to a reduction in the number of suppliers, consolidation of production volumes and a concentration of market pricing power, factors that are particularly problematic with older generic medications on which hospitals rely every day.
The formation of the new nonprofit generic drug company will be guided by an Advisory Committee that includes a roster of well-known experts from the pharmaceutical industry, business and government.
