The potential of generics policies: more room for exploitation–PPRI Conference Report

Introduction: This Conference Report aims to provide an overview of key results, messages and conclusions of the Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information (PPRI) Conference with regard to generics.Method: The PPRI Conference, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies, took place in Vienna, Austria, on 29 and 30 September 2011, with keynote talks, presentations of policies and research results, poster sessions and panel discussions.Results: Several presentations and discussions addressed the topic of generics (64% of all invited contributions, 46% of the accepted abstracts). European and non-European countries use incentives to promote generics as part of their pharmaceutical policy. Budgetary pressure on policymakers has created a sense of urgency to encourage measures to increase generics uptake (i.e. achieve a higher generics market share). There are considerable differences between the prices of originators and (lowest) generic medicines. Presentations included case studies on how to enhance generics uptake.Conclusion: Although policies on generics were not a specific programme strand of the conference, this was a recurring theme throughout. An important lesson from the conference was that the full potential of policies on generics has yet to be fully exploited. Generics uptake could be improved by a more consistent implementation of generics policies.