We uncovered some interesting results when investigating long term pricing trends of galenicals.
‘If you’re about to produce a liquid, it might not be a bad idea to choose a suspension because they they maintain their prices for much longer than syrups or oral solutions’ comments our MD, Charles Joynson.
The liquid forms of common medicines are often forgotten about when the focus is on their big sister the solid dose forms. However, liquid forms of common generics have been shown
to maintain high prices for long periods because there is less competition between manufacturers for these more niche products.
Wavedata decided to look at the long term price history of these products to see which forms hold the highest market prices. Many have been available for over 20 years and so
should have suffered significant price decay over that period. However, that is not the picture which is shown in our overall average summary graph. Here you can see that the average
prices of all forms have risen over the last ten years, with suspensions seeing the greatest price increase.
Oral solutions and syrups each had new products added in the 2000-2023 time frame, so we’d expect their prices to rise faster than the suspensions. However, this is not what we’ve
seen in our analysis. Typically, after launch, generic products suffer price decreases which are driven by competition and reimbursement. This means that off-patent products normally follow a ‘scalloped’ curve as prices fall.
This applies not only to pharmaceuticals but to many different types of consumer products. Products which resist this downward price pressure tend to be more difficult to make, such as creams, inhalers and liquids. Being more niche can protect products against long-term price attrition.