Branded or generic medicine?

Question

I've been taking this branded medicine for my migraine and it costs 28 pesos. I onced asked the pharmacist if there is a generic equivalent and she gave something that costs only 8 pesos. It worked fine for me.

My question is:

Is there really any difference between generic and branded medicine besides the name and price?

Answer 1

Generic medicines are sometimes cheaper than brand-name medicines, but the active ingredient (the ingredient that produces the therapeutic effect of the medicine) is the same in both.

Medicines also contain inactive ingredients, which are used to formulate the active ingredient into a tablet, liquid, cream or other preparation. These inactive ingredients are called excipients, and different manufacturers do not always use the same ones when formulating their product. This is why medicines containing the same active ingredient, but made by different manufacturers, may vary in appearance. The excipients used may create small differences between them, such as in colour, or the amount of time it takes for a tablet to dissolve in the gut and be absorbed into the bloodstream, but these differences are rarely significant, which is why generic and branded medicines are (with a few exceptions) interchangeable.

Pharmacists are obliged by law (U.S.) to dispense whatever the doctor has written on the prescription. If your doctor has prescribed a medicine by its brand name, your pharmacist must dispense that brand. However, if a medicine has been prescribed by its generic name, your pharmacist can dispense whatever version of the medicine they have available, because each version will have the same therapeutic effect. For this reason your regular medicines may vary in appearance each time you renew your prescription.

Answer 2

According to the FDA, they have the same effectiveness. When a drug company develops a new drug, they spent a lot of money in research and in getting the proper permits and such from the FDA. In order to be able to recoup the large amounts of money they spent in doing this (and it is usually in the millions and millions of dollars), the FDA allows the company to have a monopoly on the drug for a certain number of years. In other words, they make their own branded product and no other company is allowed to sell that product during that time. Drugs are made with an active ingredient or ingredients - these are the materials that is actually the medicine. But you usually just can't take that medicine in its pure form (it may taste horrible, it may need to be pressed into a tablet form so you can swallow it, etc.) so they add other ingredients to it so that you can take the pill, or liquid, or whatever. These additives (inactive ingredients) don't do anything except carry the medicine (active ingredient) to where your body can absorb it. (Like when you take aspirin - the entire pill isn't an aspirin, most of the ingredients are there to help make the stuff into pill shape and keep it that way, and then carry it into your body, and then break the pill apart when it hits your stomach. Check the label and you'll see a list of ingredients - not just the aspirin itself.) Eventually, the drug comes "off patent" which means that the original company that developed it no longer has the patent on the main ingredient, but it still does have a patent on the entire medicine. So other companies can then come along and make their own, generic drugs using the active ingredient, but then they have to slightly change the amounts of the inactive ingredients or else use different ones that are also as effective (the FDA has a list of these pre-approved ingredients, called GRAS, which companies are permitted to use without having to do massive amounts of research). So, the active ingredients, or the actual medicine itself, is the same. The only difference between the generics and the branded medicines are the inactives that are added.

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

Generic medicines must contain the same active ingredients as the brand version.
They are tested by the FDA prior to approval to make sure they are bioequivalent (produce the same effects in the human body).
Typically drug companies release the same drug with different mechanisms of action or release mechanisms so they can retain patent protection (and make more money).

There is nothing in federal law that forces physicians to write brand or generic prescriptions, it is simply their preference.

Answer 5

99% of the time, there is no difference. The generic version matches the branded one molecule for molecule. The only difference is the generic one doesn't have all the costs involved like marketing, advertising, high paid CEO's, etc., like the branded ones do.

Answer 6

FDA requires generic and brand to be bioequivalent. There are no major differences between them.
However, the same might not be true for drugs from other countries.

Answer 7

Its really not the same thing...the generic is basically another medicine that has the same effect as the brand but cheaper....it all depends on what you can afford.

Answer 8

generic medicine feel better because they had more care put into how they told the pharmacists they can stay together and with you.

Answer 9

Use herbal medicine.

Answer 10

I always ask for generic. Its always way cheaper and exactly the same.