Prescription drugs can save our lives, extend our lifespan, and improve our quality of life. And while many of us will want or need access to prescription drugs at some point in our lives, the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs, most notably biopharmaceuticals - or drugs derived from living sources, is putting good health and wellness out of reach for more and more Americans.

Drug costs are increasing at an alarming rate of 10 percent to 20 percent each year. And while there are numerous factors contributing to the increase, rising prescription drugs costs can be explained by simple economics.

The demand for drugs is increasing. Our population is aging. And as it does, our risk for disease and illness rises. In the last decade, countless breakthrough medicines, including biopharmaceuticals, have come to market in the form of prescription drugs, offering relief and hope to families nationwide. In an effort to promote drugs more effectively, many pharmaceutical companies now market directly to consumers through television, radio, and print advertising. Together, demographic trends, new drug discoveries and more drugs coming to market, and effective product advertising are adding up to unprecedented demand for pharmaceuticals.

The supply of drugs is limited by existing law and controlled by a few pharmaceutical companies, offering high-cost brand name drugs. Every day, consumers and their physicians make choices about the drugs they will use to treat illness and improve health. Yet, today, the lack of an FDA approval process for biogenerics, as well as loopholes that unfairly extend brand drug patents, and generic drug application backlogs in the Office of Generic Drugs (OGD), create barriers that limit consumer choices to brand-name products offered by a few pharmaceutical conglomerates and prevent affordable generic drugs from coming to market. Opening up the biopharmaceutical market to generic manufacturers also would ensure an ample supply of medicines in the case of a national epidemic, as seen with the shortage of flu vaccines in recent years.

Where generic drugs are allowed to enter the market, they are typically priced 30 percent less than their brand counterparts. And within two years, as more generic equivalents enter the market, average prices for a generic version of a drug drop in price to about 75 percent less than the brand.

You can help consumers stop paying top dollar for prescription drugs.
Learn about loopholes that keep generics from entering the consumer marketplace.