Guide
What a generic actually is
In the categories on this site, the generic often costs a small fraction of the brand while containing the same active substance. That is not a discount and it is not a compromise: it is what happens when a patent ends.
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Written by us
01
What has to be the same
The active substance, its strength, the route into the body and the approved use. A generic is approved only after demonstrating that it delivers the same amount of the same substance into the bloodstream at the same rate as the original, within limits the regulator sets.
That demonstration is the entire approval. It is not paperwork attached to a copy: it is the reason a pharmacist can substitute one for the other without asking the prescriber.
02
What may legally differ
Colour, shape, size, taste, and the inactive ingredients that hold the tablet together. Occasionally that matters to someone with a specific intolerance, and a pharmacist is the person to ask about it.
The name and the packaging differ too, which is the part that produces most of the confusion. The same substance appearing under four brand names in four countries is normal, and it does not mean four different medicines.
03
Where the price difference comes from
A company that develops a new medicine holds a patent for a period and sets the price alone. When the patent ends, other manufacturers may make the same substance, and the price falls to something close to the cost of making it.
In this catalogue the effect is dramatic: sildenafil, tadalafil, finasteride and valaciclovir all cost a small fraction of what they cost as brands. The newest injectable weight loss medicines are the counterexample, because no generic exists yet, and that gap is precisely where the unlicensed market operates.
Questions
- Is a generic weaker?
- It contains the same amount of the same substance. If it did not deliver that substance into the body equivalently, it would not have been approved.
- Why do some people say a generic feels different?
- Inactive ingredients, tablet size and expectation all play a part, and a real intolerance to an excipient is possible. That is a conversation for a pharmacist, who can check what is in each version.
- Is a cheap generic from an unknown website the same thing?
- No. A generic is a regulated product from a licensed manufacturer. A tablet from an unregistered seller is not a generic, it is an unknown, and the guide on checking a pharmacy covers how to tell the difference.
Sources
- Generic drugs: questions and answersUS Food and Drug Administration
- Generic and hybrid medicinesEuropean Medicines Agency