Generic Pharmaceutical Association

The Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA), Washington, D.C., is a trade association representing the manufacturers and distributors of generic prescription drugs, manufacturers and distributors of bulk pharmaceutical chemicals, and suppliers of other goods and services to the U.S. generic drug industry. As the primary lobby for makers of generic drugs, GPhA's stated mission is to advocate for public policies that facilitate timely access to lower-cost, FDA-approved generic medicines by consumers and patients. Over the 10-year period 2003 through 2012, the use of generic drugs generated $1.2 trillion in U.S. healthcare savings.

GPhA changed its name to the Association for Accessible Medicines in February 2017.

GPhA was formed in May 2000 by the merger of the Generic Pharmaceutical Industry Association (GPIA) and the National Pharmaceutical Alliance (NPA). In January 2001, the other generic industry trade association in operation at the time, the National Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (NAPM), merged with the newly formed GPhA, which completed the consolidation of three U.S.-focused generic trade associations into one national advocacy organization.

In 2003, GPhA supported passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (also called the Medicare Modernization Act or MMA), which resulted in the largest overhaul of Medicare in the public health program's history and created prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries (Medicare Part D).

In 2004, GPhA began promoting the potential benefits of developing a market for biosimilar versions of biologic therapies and provided answers to questions that the FDA posed in a September 2004 workshop on the scientific challenges of creating biosimilars. On May 2, 2007, GPhA's then-Chairman Bruce Downey testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Health, urging Congress to pass legislation giving FDA the authority to approve biosimilars. Congress created an approval pathway for biosimilars (including interchangeables that are substitutable with their reference product) with passage of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010. In 2015, GPhA launched the Biosimilars Council, which works to ensure a positive regulatory, reimbursement, political and policy environment for biosimilar products, and provide information to the public about the safety and effectiveness of biosimilars.

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