The ever rising prices of medicines and the consequent impact on pharmaceutical budgets is a growing concern for most countries in the EU and around the world. Generic competition is able to provide cheaper versions of medicines, offering an important pillar in cost-containment measures of national health policies. Hence, most Member States have implemented various supply-side (e.g. price control, price comparison, tendering, reimbursement, reference price system) and demand-side measures
(e.g. INN prescribing, monitoring of prescription behaviour and generic substitution by pharmacists) to support and enhance the use of generics. The general objective of the present study was to gain a better understanding on the availability of generics with low sales, generics in small markets in the EU and generics with complex pharmaceutical forms. In doing so, this paper determines factors and policies that may or may not lead to generic market entry and competition.