Last updated:
Diane Archer
JustCareUSA.org
In October 2015, there were as many as 3,000 generic drugs waiting to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. FDA underfunding may explain it in part. So might incomplete information on applications by their manufacturers as the FDA claims. But, whatever the reason, the result is that we end up paying high drug prices, (though some generic drug prices are sky high.)
Generics can cost as little as 20 percent of what brand-name drugs cost; they can also cost a lot more. Around 8 out of 10 prescriptions are for generic drugs but they account for less than 30 percent of our drug spending.
