Generic medications will cost you less than branded versions

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by: anvgelica19
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According to the U.S. Food and Drug administration (FDA), to receive FDA approval, a generic medicine must: comprise bioequivalent active ingredients as the brand name medicine (inactive ingredients may vary), be bioequivalent in strength, dosage form and route of administration; meet the same batch requirements for identity, efficacy, quality and purity; be made under the same fixed standards of FDA's Good Manufacturing Practice regulations required for trade name medications. In other words, their pharmacological effects are exactly the same as those of their branded counterparts.
Although generic medicines are chemically identical to their trade name counterparts, they are typically sold at substantial discounts from the trade name cost. Generic medications are reported to save consumers $8 to $10 billion annually at retail pharmacies. Even much more money is saved when hospitals use generic medicines.
The key reason for the comparatively low cost of generic medicines is that competition escalates among manufacturers when medications no longer are protected by patents. Producers incur fewer costs in creating a generic drug, and are, thus, able to sustain profitability at a lower price to customers. The costs of these generics are so low that many developing countries can easily afford them. For example, Thailand is going to import millions of doses of the generic version of Plavix, a blood-thinning drug to forestall heart attacks, at a price of 3 US cents per dose from India, the leading maker of generic drugs.
Makers of generics do not incur the cost of medication discovery, and instead are able to reverse engineer known drug compounds to allow them to make identical versions. Manufacturers do not need to prove the safety and potency of the medications through clinical trials, because these trials have already been conducted by the trade name company.
Sometimes, generic versions of a drug have different colors, flavors, or combinations of inactive ingredients in comparison to branded medications. According to the U.S. Trademark law, generic medications are not allowed to look exactly like trade name medicines. Nevertheless, active ingredients must be the same in both preparations, insuring that both have the same medicinal effects.

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