What Is The Difference Between Brand & Generic Medicines

While purchasing medicines, often people prefer to buy whatever the doctor has prescribed. Of course, it is always a good habit of buying medicines only based on the prescriptions. But it is also a great idea to understand the difference between a Brand medicine and Generic medicine so that you can get an alternative in case of urgency.

What is Brand Medicine?

When you talk about brand medicine, it is mainly a medicine that has been developed by a pharmaceutical company. But this does not mean that pharmaceutical companies can manufacture any medicine and introduce it to the market. The medicines have to be approved by bodies such as FDA or others depending upon the country where the medicine is getting manufactured.

While getting approved by the respective bodies, the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing the medicines, need to present a number of details such as the chemical composition, the dosage form, the efficacy of the drug, packaging, labeling, and other data.

What are Generic Medicines?

Currently, a lot of people talk about generic medicines. A lot of patients get quite confused between the terms brand medicines and generic medicines.

So, as per a common description, generic medicine is a drug that has been manufactured with the same chemical composition and dosage as one of the brand medicines. These medicines will work absolutely in the same way how the original brand medicine will do. Before approving the generic medicines, once again the respective bodies check and approve upon the efficacy, safety, characteristics, performance, and quality of the medicine.

What is the difference between brand & generic medicines?

Differentiating between brand medicines and generic medicines can get confusing at times. Here are some of the points that can help in differentiating in between both the terms.

1) The Name:

The very first difference is that the brand medicines will have such a name that is something related to the brand of the medicine. But in the case of generic medicines, the names are usually the composition of the medicine or something such that can help the patients to recognize the drug conveniently.

2) The Pricing:

One of the major talks of the town that has always remained is the pricing of the medicines. While the brands may sell their medicines at a slightly increased price, usually the generic medicines are available at a much lower price.

As we mainly deal in Hepatitis, Anti Cancer, Anti HIV medicine. So below are mentioned few examples of brand & generic.

Is generic medicine the same effective as Branded?

Often patients worry whether the generic medicines are as effective as the brand medicines or not. These generic medicines are very much as effective as the brand medicines because they have the same chemical composition in them that the brand medicines have. Also, the generic medicines are approved by essential bodies such as FDA that offer security that the medicine is safe for consumption and offers a similar effect as the brand medicines on the patients.

There are endless examples of generic medicines available today that are very much effective and offer the same results that the original brand medicines offer. Thus, it can be said that these generic medicines are made in such a way that can be effective as the branded ones.

Why is generic medicine so much cheaper than the brand?

A lot of people preach that brand medicines are expensive than generic medicines because the pharmaceutical brands dominate the cost of the medicines. This might be correct to a certain extent. But the major reason is that the generic medicine manufacturers do not have to make any kind of research process that the brand medicine manufacturers do while manufacturing the medicines.

The brand manufacturers have to conduct several types of research to get the right chemical composition of the drug that is effective for a particular health concern. Also, the brand runs several trials first over animals and then on humans to check whether the medicine is safe for consumption or not. It is only when the trials are successfully attempted that the drugs are launched in the market. If somehow there is a failure noticed in the trials then the manufacturers may make changes in the chemical composition and the whole trial starts from the grass root. Hence, there is a lot of work to be done that surely ends up adding to the costing of the drug.

Now, when you talk about generic medicines, the manufacturers do not have to go through the whole research process once again as the research task is already done by the brand medicine manufacturer. The generic drug manufacturer just has to manufacture the drug as per the chemical composition of the brand drug and has to take the selling rights from the brand. As this does involve much research and other efforts, the cost of the generic medicines comes down to a level that gets much affordable for those who are not able to buy the brand medicines.