Generic drugs may stunt the growth of prescription drugs in the market. In fact, IMS Health said that sales and production of the latter may be cut in half within the next five years. This is due to the fact that huge brands are losing patent protection and consumers prefer generic drugs over prescriptions as they are cheaper.

IMS Health executive, Murray Aitken, said that they see an unprecedented play in dynamics between the consumers and drug companies. Many people are now shifting to generic drugs from branded products. These patterns of spending show clues on the face of the drug industry by 2015. Aitken’s company monitors sales and trends of prescription drugs.

A generation of new generic drugs are approaching as several drug companies lose their U.S. patent protection in 2015. Those companies include Pfeizer Incorporated’s cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, Eli Lilly and Company’s drug for schizophrenia Zyprexa, and Plavix, a blood clot fighting drug by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; all of which generate a total of $10 billion per year.

Meanwhile, cancer drugs expenditures may rise in a much slower rate than in the past couple years because of the innovations in biotech treatments. That treatment is currently used in developed countries. On the other hand, annual spending in medicines for diabetes is expected to increase by up to 7% through 2015 because of the changes in the lifestyle and eating habits of people in developing countries.