According to Boston, over the next year many people in the United States will start paying a good deal less for prescription drugs. Patents on several of the most purchased drugs will be expiring soon; this means that patients will be able to buy chemically equivalent non-brand name medicine. Some of the figures from the article are:

• The average generic prescription cost $72 whereas the average brand name cost $198
• 15% of the population will be affected by these soon to expire patents
• In 2 years a brand name drug can lose 90% of it’s revenue to competition