What pharmacies paid for amlodipine, 2013 to 2026

No tablet in GxRadar's 47-drug price basket cost pharmacies less in October 2026 than generic amlodipine 5 mg. Thirty tablets cost an average of 31 cents (1.02 cents a tablet), according to the federal government's NADAC survey files¹. In November 2013, when the series begins, the same 30 tablets cost 66 cents, according to the 2013 files².

These are acquisition costs, what retail pharmacies pay to buy the drug, and not prices at the counter. Thirty tablets is the typical fill for this product in Medicaid's 2025 State Drug Utilization Data³, which counted 3.56 million Medicaid prescriptions for it that year, averaging 51.9 tablets each because many were 90-day fills.

It is also one of the most heavily used generics in Medicare. Medicare Part D paid for 50.2 million claims of generic amlodipine in 2024, up from 43.3 million in 2020, according to CMS's Part D Spending by Drug data⁴. GxRadar analyzed CMS NADAC files through October 2026 and FDA approval records to show what a fill costs pharmacies now against what it cost then, and how amlodipine got to the bottom of the table.

A 30-tablet fill, then and now

Below, GxRadar multiplies its monthly median of the weekly NADAC per-tablet rate, for generic-classified rows listed as amlodipine besylate 5 mg tablet, by the number of tablets. The 90-tablet column is there because 90-day fills are common for this drug in Medicaid data. Fill sizes describe how prescriptions are dispensed; the prescriber sets the dose and quantity.

The November 2013 rate was also the highest in the series. Every month since has been cheaper, and the rate has fallen by roughly half. That is about the same as GxRadar's generic price index, which stood at 47.4 in October 2026, or about 53 percent below January 2014. The difference is the starting point. Amlodipine was already the fourth-cheapest tablet in the basket in January 2014, at under 2 cents.

How the price came down

October figures for each year show the decline came in two steps, a flat stretch through 2016 and then a steady slide.

Early 2024 brought the one jolt. The rate jumped from 1.05 cents in November 2023 to 1.42 cents in January and February 2024, then fell to 0.95 cents in July, the lowest month on record, according to the 2024 NADAC files⁵. For a 30-tablet fill that is a swing from 43 cents to 29 cents within six months. The same pattern ran through many generics that year, as our account of the 2024 NADAC swings shows.

CMS responded in its December 2024 methodology⁶, which describes "a temporary, short-term measure to address rate volatility occurring as a result of fluctuations in survey participation." Monthly generic rates are now a three-month moving average. Since then amlodipine has moved in small steps, from 1.04 cents in January 2025 to a high of 1.15 cents that August, according to the 2025 files⁷, and down to 1.02 cents by October 2026. The full monthly series is on our amlodipine page.

Thirty-nine generic applications

Amlodipine is a calcium channel blocker, according to the National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus entry⁸. FDA approved the original tablets on July 31, 1992, according to Drugs@FDA records⁹. GxRadar counted 39 single-ingredient amlodipine besylate ANDAs in FDA's data, every one for tablets and every one including the 5 mg strength. The earliest carries an approval date of Oct. 3, 2005. Nineteen were approved in 2007, five of them on July 9. Nineteen of the 39 still list the 5 mg tablet as a marketed prescription product. Our approvals tracker shows ANDA approvals by year.

That depth of competition is the usual explanation for prices this low. FDA economists found in a December 2019 analysis¹⁰ that "with six or more competitors, generic prices using both AMP and invoice prices show price reductions of more than 95% compared to brand prices." CMS's Part D data list 22 manufacturers of generic amlodipine in 2024. Our explainer on why generic prices fall as competitors enter covers the mechanics.

Part D spending per claim tells a similar story from a different angle.

CMS's methodology¹¹ says spending is gross drug cost, including ingredient cost, dispensing fees and sales tax, before manufacturer rebates. A claim can be for any quantity, so the per-claim figure is not comparable with the per-tablet NADAC rate.

Recalls and shortages

Amlodipine came up during the 2018 and 2019 recalls of blood pressure drugs contaminated with nitrosamine impurities, but only in combination products. FDA's ARB recall page¹² says, "Medications containing only amlodipine or hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) are not being recalled." Some tablets that paired amlodipine with valsartan or losartan were. Our valsartan recall story and losartan price history cover those drugs.

The openFDA enforcement data¹³ hold 26 recall records for single-ingredient amlodipine products since 2012, 20 of them Class II and six Class III. None was Class I. Our recall tracker draws on the same records. FDA's shortage list as of Nov. 3, 2026 had no amlodipine entry, according to the openFDA shortage data¹⁴ behind our shortage tracker.

Thirty-one cents against the dispensing fee

At these prices the tablets are a rounding error in the cost of filling a prescription. CMS's state reimbursement table for the quarter ending September 2026¹⁵ shows New Jersey Medicaid paying a $10.92 professional dispensing fee and New York paying $10.18, on top of an ingredient cost tied to NADAC or other benchmarks. Against a 31-cent ingredient cost, New Jersey's fee is more than 35 times larger. Those are program payments to pharmacies; they say nothing about what a patient pays, which depends on coverage and the pharmacy's own prices. Our explainers on dispensing fees and 90-day supplies go further, and the lisinopril price history follows another blood pressure tablet that costs pharmacies well under a dollar a fill.

CMS says on its NADAC page¹⁶ that the three-month moving average for generics "will continue until further notice" and that it plans to solicit stakeholder input on a more permanent fix for volatility. Any change to that method would show up first in drugs priced at a cent a tablet, where a tenth of a cent is a 10 percent move.