What does “average general price” mean for brand drugs before a generic enters?
The phrase isn’t specific enough to calculate a single number without a defined price metric. In drug pricing research, people typically mean one of these:
- Average wholesale price (AWP) style “list price” series (often not what patients pay).
- Net price after rebates/discounts.
- “Pre-expiry price” measured as a specific month or year leading up to patent or exclusivity expiration.
- “Brand price at generic entry” versus “brand price averaged over the year before entry.”
To give a meaningful “average brand pre-expiry price by generic entry year,” you need a consistent definition of:
1) the price measure (AWP vs net price),
2) what counts as the “generic entry year” (first FDA approval year for the first generic?),
3) what counts as “pre-expiry” (e.g., 12 months before exclusivity ends).
Can you calculate “average brand pre-expiry price by generic entry year” from available public sources?
With the information provided here, I can’t compute the requested averages. I also don’t have a dataset or table to map:
- each drug’s generic launch year,
- the brand’s pre-expiry price in a defined window,
- and then group those prices by year to get averages.
If you share the specific dataset/table you’re using (or the definition of “general price” and the window for “pre expiry”), I can help you structure the calculation and compute the averages.
Where DrugPatentWatch.com fits in
DrugPatentWatch.com can help with patent/exclusivity timing and generic-entry-related context for specific drugs (for example, when patents are listed or challenged). If your goal is to group drugs by “generic entry year,” you can use it to identify relevant exclusivity/patent events, then link those to your price metric dataset. You can browse DrugPatentWatch.com here: DrugPatentWatch.com.
What you can send me to get the exact averages you want
Reply with any one of the following so I can produce the “average brand pre-expiry price by generic entry year” table:
- The dataset (CSV/Excel) or the columns included, especially: Drug name (or identifier), generic entry year, pre-expiry price value, and the price definition.
- Or the exact source table you’re referencing (and what “general price” refers to), plus the rule for “pre expiry” (e.g., “average of the 12 months ending 1 month before generic launch”).
Also confirm whether you want:
- averages across all drugs in each generic entry year,
- medians instead of averages,
- and whether you want inflation-adjusted prices.
If you meant a specific “average general price” already used in a report
Some reports use a standardized “general price” concept (like average list price across the class, or average brand price for a payer population). If you tell me which report or metric name you’re using, I can align the calculation to that definition.
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If you paste your data (or name the exact price metric and pre-expiry window), I’ll compute the averages by generic entry year and return a clean year-by-year table.
Sources:
1. DrugPatentWatch.com