The Generics Have Arrived

For headaches and run-of-the-mill aches and pains, patients have become accustomed to generic over-the-counter medications found in the aisles of any pharmacy. Increasingly, patients are also finding generic choices when it comes to prescription oncology medications. In fact, reports show that generics are growing at twice the rate of the overall oncology market. Generic oncology medication choices currently include:

• Abiraterone: This is a generic for Zytiga, a medication FDA approved for prostate cancer. This is one of the most recent generics now available in the oncology medication category.

• Bexarotene: A generic form of Targretin reached the market in 2015. Bexarotene first gained FDA approval as a branded drug in 1999 for cutaneous T cell lymphoma. 

• Capecitabine: This generic form of Xeloda is used to treat metastatic colorectal cancer and metastatic breast cancer.

• Imatinib: This generic version of Gleevec became available in February 2016. Imatinib is a targeted oncology drug first introduced in 2001 that is well-known for extending the lives of many people with chronic myeloid leukemia.

Additional generic forms of oncology medications remain on the horizon – all of which might help make cancer treatment more affordable for patients who are increasingly faced with hefty economic burdens from cancer treatment.