When drug patents expire, cheap generic equivalents usually enter the market, drastically reducing prices and costs. Generic competition has arrived for many blockbuster drugs in the past few years, and much more is on the way. Sometimes, the manufacturer of a branded drug offers its own “authorized generic” to compete with the first outside generic to enter the market. Whether authorized generics promote or inhibit competition has been vigorously debated by health care experts. At this conference, Ernst R. Berndt and Andrew Parece will discuss the conclusion of their new study, “Authorized Generic Drugs, Price Competition and Consumers’ Welfare” (coauthored with Richard Mortiner, Ashoke Bhattacharjya, and Edward Tuttle), that authorized generics tend to enhance competition and work to the benefit of patients. Two additional experts offer their own views on the paper and on the advent of authorized generics.
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