Two-thirds of all prescriptions filled in the US are generics, the highest-ever rate, according to figures released by the Generic Pharmaceutical Association. That’s up from 63 percent. Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reminds us that more expensive brand-name meds account for about 80 percent of all dollars spent on prescriptions each year.

The figures, compiled by IMS Health, show generic drugmakers are capitalizing on expiring patents and efforts by insurers to rein in health-care costs, Bloomberg notes, while adding that the companies hope to capitalize as drugs with $20 billion in annual sales lose patent protection and the presidential candidates promise to make generic drugs more widely available. Drugs facing generic competition for the first time this year include Merck’s Fosamax osteoporosis med and Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal antipsychotic.

“We’re poised to do very well,” Kathleen Jaeger, the trade group’s president says during its annual convention. “All the candidates believe that generics are part of the answer.”

Hillary Clinton co-sponsored legislation last year that would for the first time allow the FDA to approve copies of biologics that have been on the market at least 12 years. Passage is in doubt, but generic drugmakers wants revisions, saying 12 years is too long to delay competition for drugs that can cost as much as $200,000 a year. Americans now spend $40 billion annually on biologics, Bloomberg notes. They also want the FDA to be able to consider on a case-by-case basis when clinical trials are needed to approve a copy and when a copy can be substituted for the brand med at a pharmacy.

As Bloomberg recaps, Clinton vows to increase funding for the FDA’s Office of Generic Drugs to speed reviews of new meds and eliminate “loopholes” that allow brand-name drugmakers to block generics from entering the market. Generic drugmakers don’t want to pay the FDA to handle their drug applications, as proposed by the White House this month in his budget, unless quicker reviews are guaranteed.

Clinton’s Democratic rival Barack Obama says he would also prevent brand-name drugmakers from blocking copies and would encourage wider use of generics in US health programs, including Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor, to lower costs. Obama and John McCain want to allow Americans to buy drugs from Canada and other countries if the meds are shown to be safe and less expensive. McCain also wants to improve the approval process for generic drugs and biologics.