What Are Generic Drugs?

International Nonproprietary Names
 

What Are Generic Drugs?

When a new drug is developed, it is given a name that indicates the chemical make-up of that drug. This is called its generic or chemical name. The new drug is also given a brand name for marketing purposes. The brand name is usually easier to say and remember than the chemical name.

Patients and Doctors will come to know the new drug by this brand name and initially prescriptions are written using the brand name. (A well-known example of a brand name drug is Prozac - its chemical name is fluoxetine).

Generic drugs are copies of brand name drugs with the same active ingredients. Therefore, equivalent brand name and generic drugs have the same chemical name.

Why Are Generic Drugs Cheap Drugs?

Generic drugs are usually less expensive than their brand name equivalents. This is because the investment in discovering them is not required, and because they are essentially copy products, the investment in developing them is less intensive.

Generic drugs have been reported to save US consumers an estimated $8 to $10 billion a year . In 2000, the volume of generic prescriptions was 42%, and yet this represented only 8% of total dollar value of pharmaceutical sales . That same year the average price of generic prescriptions was $19.33 while the average price of a brand name prescription was $65.29.  [..more]

Switching to Generics

Many brand name drugs have generic equivalents available. In the US, almost half of all prescriptions filled in 2002 were for generic drugs. Over the next two years it is expected that more than two thirds of all prescriptions will be filled with generic drugs . This does not mean that all of these generic drugs will be supplied on generic prescriptions because in the U.S., most states allow pharmacists to substitute a generic drug on prescriptions even though a brand name product may have initially been prescribed. However usually this is only done when the Doctor approves it.

The figures do indicate however that generic drugs are widely accepted by medical professionals and patients. Many insurance plans also encourage patients to accept generic drugs over their brand name counterparts whenever it's medically safe.  [..more]

Safety & Quality of Generic Drugs

The approval process for generic drugs is rigorous in all countries. A company that manufactures a generic drug needs to prove that it is as effective and safe as its brand name counterpart. The company must show that their generic drug has the same effect in the body and is manufactured to the same high standards before it can be registered and therefore sold to patients.

The safety and quality of all generics available on this site are without question. All have been through rigorous approval processes and are widely used.  [..more]

An 'International Nonproprietary Name' (INN) is the official chemical name (nonproprietary name) given to a pharmaceutical substance as designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The proprietary name is the brand name.
i.e; Prozac = proprietary name,
fluoxetine hydrochloride = nonproprietary name.
Click here to read about International Nonproprietary Names

The intention of an INN is to ensure there is a standard name for each chemical substance across the world. Occasionally, the United States and/or Britain may designate their own nonproprietary name for a particular substance, rather than adhering to the INN. In such instances, the nonproprietary name may be referred to as a 'United States Adopted Name' (USAN) or as a 'British Approved Name' (BAN). Sometimes the USAN or the BAN can differ from the INN.

This is the case with the nonproprietary name for the common asthma product; Ventolin. The INN and the BAN for Ventolin is salbutamol, while the USAN is albuterol.
Click here to read about salbutamol and albuterol

Another example is the commonly used diuretic Lasix. The INN and the USAN is furosemide, while frusemide is the nonproprietary name that the British approved.
Click here to read about furosemide and frusemide