Generic Pricing Policy Frees Up $1 Billion: Statin Pricing and Expenditure from 2010-2022 in Australia.

OBJECTIVES: The high burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) globally and in Australia necessitates attention on managing expenditure for statins, the primary pharmacological intervention for multiple CVD risk factors. The Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) subsidized approved statins for Australians. Managing government expenditure using the PBS occurs through price control strategies such as statutory price decreases upon first generic entry, price disclosure, and expanded and accelerated price disclosure. This study investigates the impact of price control measures on the price evolution and government expenditure for statins between 2010 and 2022.

METHODS: Prescription and pricing data was obtained from the Services Australia Medicare Statistics website, and the timing and effect of price reduction strategies from the PBS website. Summary statistics was used to compare and describe the statin price, prescription, number of brands, market share, and government expenditure to price control measure timelines of atorvastatin, fluvastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, simvastatin.

RESULTS: The prices of statins exposed to price control measures decreased irrespective of dosage and correlated with reductions in government expenditure. This reduction occurred irrespective of prescription trends, with a comparison of 2010 and 2022 showing annual statin expenditure declined by AU$833.5M (83.25%) while prescriptions reduced by only 3M (15.7%). Inverted effects of price disclosure on market share for atorvastatin and rosuvastatin suggests industry prompted price reductions may have been driven by market share loss, while reasons external to pricing prompted rosuvastatin to gain market share.

CONCLUSIONS: Limited publications on contemporary effects of price control measures on statin prices exist. Estimations by this study found these measures reduced government expenditure for statins by AU$949.1M, with the desired price reduction observed to correlate with government price control measures. In addition to affirming price control mechanisms remain effective in the contemporary setting, this study provides data for key insights into the Australian statin industry.