Imagine yourself buying some medication at the pharmacy, which was prescribed by your doctor. Quite expensive you think to yourself. A nice pharmacist offers you to get an equivalent – the same medicine at a cheaper price. Take a look at the pack, this medicine contains the exact same active element as the prescribed one. Then why are the prices so different? Why do we have to pay more when we get medicine of some particular well-known pharmaceutical companies?
What is generic medicine?
Let us take a look at what can be defined as generic medicine:
It can be a substitute of new innovative medicine
It is produced with no license of the company developing innovative medicine
It can be presented at the market after the expiration of the patent or other rights
So, in general, generic medicine is the same in terms of quality and content as the reference medicine and it is proved by researches of independent experts.
Why is generic medicine cheaper than brand medicine?
Think about it – to develop and introduce new medicine is a quite expensive business.
Let us begin with the fact that well-known pharmaceutical concerns invest hundreds of millions dollars into research connected to creation of new medicine.
Not every new medicine development is successful. There is a big number of developments that show negative effects right at the beginning.
If there is a positive outcome of experiments, the new formula needs to get a patent.
Then there is series of tests and deeper research, the medicine which is found to be safe and effective will be registered as medicine, which can be prescribed and sold at the pharmacy.
However, it does not mean that the manufacturer will stop the research. It goes on in order to find better application methods and possible combination with other medicine.
The patent term is around 20 years. So these years are used by manufacturer to get back money invested, plus some profit. No doubts we support such development and research by buying original medicine.
Thus the low price of generic medicine can be explained by the following:
-there is no expenses connected to development and research, it is enough to copy the formula;
-there is no need to invest money into advertising – the consumer already knows how this medicine works.
Low price, does it mean it is a bad quality medicine?
One of the most important goals of the generic medicine manufacturers is to get the same therapeutic effect as the original medicine have got. Otherwise, this generic medicine will not be legal on the market. Of course such a research cannot be considered the same as a big clinical experiment, however, it proves that the generic medicine effect is similar to its prototype. So this generic medicine has got the same treatment effect and minimum of side effects.
It is a general world practice for well-known pharmaceutical companies to produce not only their original medication but generics as well, which are of the same quality. That is why when your doctor offers you to substitute one medication by the other, do not decline this offer right away! The generic medication has got the same active element at the same proportions. The only difference – it is produced under a different name. Also there are cases when the name of generic medication is different only by one or two letters, so the eye of a customer perceives its as an original, for example, no-shpa and nosh-bra.
According to the words of the staff of a pharmacy, they do not differentiate generic medicine and the original, and they do not know what is the proportion of both in the assortment of their store.
Who needs generics?
The most interested one in having generics at a pharmacy is of course a general customer.
One undoubted advantage of such analogues – is the budget economy for a country as well as the customer’s budget. Due to these reasons there companies producing generic medicine even in a well developed countries, including very rich countries. For instance, there are mass purchases of generic medicine in the US for various state health programs and army, as well as generic medicine can be found at pharmacies. As well as in Europe half of the pharmacy market is occupied with generic medications. Generic medicine is profitable in terms of purchasing as well as manufacturing. Moreover generic medicine is cheaper than original on average by 40-60%, which makes it more available for local population.
So in the end of the day, a customer chooses to spend money on pills of a well-known brand, or get a cheaper generic one.
What are the prospects?
The pharmacists and doctors of many countries are quite sure in the future of generic medicine. It does not matter how high income an average person can have, cheaper analogues will always be more available.
