Figure. Savings Comparison Across 3 Price Metrics.

We analyzed the top 1000 generic drugs in the Colorado All Payer Claims Database (CO-APCD) and corresponding therapeutic alternatives. Average wholesale prices (AWP) as of December 31, 2019, were obtained from Medi-Span.¹² National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) data as of December 31, 2019, were obtained from Medicaid.gov.¹⁶ A total of 45 drug pairs representing 45 high-cost generics and 64 therapeutic alternatives, except for NADAC analysis (35 drug pairs representing 35 high-cost generics and 50 therapeutic alternatives). Under both AWP and NADAC, the therapeutic alternative was less expensive than the high-cost generic in all the pairs in our sample.