Comparing Brand-Name Medication to Generic Medication

Often times, when you get a prescription from your doctor, they will give you a drug with a widely-known name in the health industry. You go to your drug store to get the prescription, and you’ll find out one way or another that there is what is known as a “generic version” of the drug that you are prescribed.

For instance, Lamictal is an anti-epileptic drug to suppress symptoms of seizures and its generic name is lamotrigine. Lamictal is widely advertised and is one of the most-known medications of its kind, claimed to be the most effective anticonvulsant. However, there are alternative forms of lamotrigine that cost less. Patients are left to make a decision of whether to buy Lamictal online or go with its generic counterpart.

Generic drugs are often considered rip-offs of brand names, but that isn’t really the case, especially when talking about medicine. Generic drugs share many similarities with brand-name drugs. They contain the same active ingredient as well as the same quality, dosage and strength as brand-name drugs. While some assume that they are inferior, that usually isn’t the case.

Lamictal and lamotrigine are expected to have the same traits to help seizures, with the same amount, strength, quality, dosage, and directions for taking. The same can be said for Ventolin and albuterol, Prilosec and omeprazole, Flonase and fluticasone, and so on.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) states that drug manufacturers need to prove how generic drugs can be suitable replacements for brand-name drugs as well as offer the same benefits. In other words, you can get a generic drug instead of a brand-name one and enjoy the same benefits.

So how come generic drugs cost less than brand-name drugs? The real question is: Why do brand-name drugs cost more? There is a long explanation for this. Firstly, manufacturers in charge of brand-name drugs need to conduct clinical trials so that they are sure that their products work just as intended. These tests require lots of money to conduct, and thus they bump up the price of these drugs to consumers in order to recoup losses from these tests.

While this other factor has less to do with brand-name drug manufacturers, it still can make their products pricey in comparison. A brand-name drug is sold by just one drug manufacturer. Generic drugs on the other hand are sold by a number of manufacturers, which can lead to competition among themselves, usually leading to price reductions in order to make sales, while brand-name drugs remain the same price. Generic drugs can cost as much as 80 to 85 percent less than the brand-name version and therefore, generic drugs have saved the healthcare industry trillions of dollars thus far as a result.

It is very easy to tell the difference between brand-name and generic drugs. From the get-go, generic drugs cannot look the same. Because of trademark laws, the packaging for generic drugs must be different from their brand-name counterparts. So, if you are concerned that these drugs try to look similar to trick consumers, they shouldn’t.

There are times in which the brand-name drug, however, will be the drug you want to buy. If the generic drug has a low therapeutic index, there is no generic version of a drug, or it just doesn’t work for you, then go for the brand-name drug by all means.