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Is The Name Brand Drug Really Better Than The Generic?
Often, people wonder if a generic drug is just as good as its brand-name counterpart. Why all the fuss? Should consumers be concerned when they receive generic drugs from their pharmacy? A generic drug is the chemical equivalent of a drug that has an expired patent. When a brand-name drug’s patent expires, other pharmaceutical companies can produce the same active chemical compound and sell the drug under its generic name. So what are the differences between name brand drugs and generic drugs? Let’s look at the quality of generic drugs, the availability, and the difference in cost to the consumer. To help illustrate my point I will be comparing two drugs; the first drug is known as Prozac 20mg and its generic name is Fluoxetine 20mg, the other drug is Zithromax Z-Pak 250mg and generic name Azithromycin 250mg.
First of all, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that all drugs, whether a brand-name or a generic drug, meet standards of safety, purity and effectiveness. For drugs to be marketed under a generic label, the manufacturer must comply with FDA standards. The FDA states that generic drugs must be therapeutically equivalent to the brand-name drug. In order to ensure its safety and effectiveness, a generic drug undergoes intensive testing. The FDA sets up guidelines and requires strict testing in order to determine which drugs act the same way in the body.
Secondly, the availability of brand-name drugs is limited due to the fact that there is only one brand-name drug company producing the drug, whereas there are multiple generic companies producing the generic drug. For example, Prozac has only one manufacturing company, whereas Fluoxetine has 17 companies producing the same drug. This makes the generic readily available to all the pharmacies and then in turn to the consumer.
Finally, price appears to be the real difference between most brand and generic drugs....