The AAM 2026 Savings Report, developed in partnership with IQVIA, was released yesterday (here) which describes the tremendous savings that the American consumer has realized from generic drug products and biosimilars. With generics accounting for 89% of all prescriptions dispensed and the uptake of biosimilars increasing, the savings are sure to compound.

The facts speak for themselves.

While generics represent 89% of the prescriptions dispensed (4 billion), they account for only 11.6% of the drug spend. Brand name drugs account for 11% of the prescription dispensed and account for 88.4% of the total drug spending.

Here are some more important facts about generic drug savings:

  • Total generic and biosimilar savings in 2025 – $496 billion
  • Total generic and biosimilar savings for the past ten years: $3.6 trillion
  • Total generic savings in Medicare in 2025 – $166 billion ($3,011 per beneficiary)
  • Total generic savings in Medicaid in 2025 – $70.2 billion ($921 per enrollee)

 

Here are some important facts about biosimilar savings:

  • Biosimilar savings in 2025: $25.4 billion
  • Total savings since first biosimilar entry in 2015 – $81.6 billion
  • Total days of patient therapy with biosimilars since 2015 – 3.8 billion
  • Incremental days of patient therapy that would not have occurred without biosimilar competition – 571 million

These numbers are quite astounding and represent the work of generic and biosimilar manufacturers, the Association of Accessible Medicine (AAM) and their advocacy on behalf of the manufacturers and the American public. There is always more that needs to be done to protect the savings and to ensure that the savings realized continue to grow. For instance, some of the areas that are critical to ensure that those savings continue and must continue to be addressed are; 1) the pending threat of 100% tariffs on foreign manufactured generic drugs, 2) the misinformation regarding the use of and interchangeability of biosimilars to further improve uptake, 3) the need for generic and biosimilars to be immediately placed on drug formularies once approved so patients can access the less expensive options sooner, 4) the patent thickets created around biologic and innovator drug products, and 5) the razor thin margins on generic drugs that threaten the viability of continued marketing of certain drug products that will likely lead to additional drug shortages. We know that these are issues that AAM continues working on and has had successes, but it seems as if with every success, there appears to be a new challenge that pops up which needs to be addressed.

AAM has been a big driver for leading the charge on these and many other issues and their continuing work should be recognized as critical to addressing these issues and hopefully leading to their successful resolution.