| Switching from branded medicines to generic versions may save a great deal of money, particularly if you are starting on a drug for the first time. One the primary differences is the retail price of branded medications and generics.
Generics accounted for less than 19% of all prescriptions filled in 1984. Now, generic medications represent more than 54% of all prescriptions dispensed in the United States of America. Besides, even though generics account for more than half of prescriptions available, they account for less than 16 cents of every dollar spent on prescription medicines. Now there are more than 7,800 generics of about 10,668 pharmaceuticals approved by the U.S..
A lot of people wonder if there is any difference between the efficacy and safety of branded medicines and their generics. They would like to know if the quality and effectiveness have been compromised to make cheaper products.
A 1990 study by FDA laboratories from all over the USA found that for those classes of prescription drugs that were very likely to pose safety or efficacy problems if they were not manufactured in the proper way, the generic medication satisfied the applicable standards in virtually all cases. The classes of medications tested included contraceptives, antibiotics, and medicines prescribed for asthma, epilepsy, high blood pressure and abnormal heart rhythms. Of the 429 samples of the 24 different drugs examined, including both brand name and generic medications, there were no samples examined that posed a health hazard to patients when tested for effectiveness.
The reason that these 24 different medications were selected is that they all have a limited therapeutic scope. This means that in comparison to most types of medications, for which there is a relatively big range of dosages that are both efficient and relatively secure, the amount of these drugs that gets into the human body must be more strictly regulated. If it is not, the drug may too easily lose its efficacy (if the dosage is too low) or become toxic (if the dosage is too high).
The medications examined included 6 asthma medicines, 4 medications for curing epilepsy, 4 hypertension drugs, 4 medicines for treating heart arrhythmias, a birth control pill, one antibiotic, a medication for treating depression, and the so-called blood-thinning drug. In six categories of drugs, both branded and generics were tested. In the case of the birth control pill, all of the main brand names, but no generic drug, were examined.
The FDA laboratory studies for purity and quality demonstrated that there was no difference between the branded and the generic versions for 23 of the 24 medicines tested. |
