Generic drugs and brand name drugs have a number of differences. They can have different names, different colors and different prices to name a few. However, these differences do not necessarily mean generics and brand names don’t have the same effects.
This week on Take Care, Dr. Elizabeth Higdon, an instructor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences campus in Colchester, Vermont, joins the program to talk about the quality of generic drugs, why they’re different from brand names and their benefits.
Higdon holds a doctor of pharmacy degree, teaches classes on over-the-counter medications and works as a community pharmacist.
“What I like to tell my patients is a generic drug is a less expensive alternative to a brand medication,” Higdon said. “It has the same active ingredient and it’s in the same strength that you’ve currently been taking.”
Price difference
The price gap, in large part, has to do with the differences in costs paid out by the brand name and generic manufacturers.
According to Higdon, brand manufacturers do extensive trials to make sure the active ingredient is effective to treat the intended condition, while generics have to show their medication works similarly to the brand medication in the body.
They’ll do so by testing their drug on a number of humans alongside the brand name and they’ll do blood work to show theirs performs in the blood the same way. The brand name has already shown the medication is effective for the condition, so the generic doesn’t have to do so.
Generic drugs also tends to be cheaper because once the brand name’s patent, which usually lasts around 20 years, a number of generics will hit the market, thus driving the price down. The price drop helps the patient pay less for the drug, but it also helps keep healthcare costs down.
“They don’t have to advertise because the brand medication has been used in patients and so most states will actually allow us, as pharmacists, as long as there’s no restrictions by the patient or the doctor to switch to the generic when it becomes available,” Higdon said. “And often your insurance company wants us to switch as well because that helps save all of us money.”
A different look
Brand name medications can have a certain look, design, color and flavor. All those features are related to the brand’s patent. Thus, generic manufacturers cannot make an identical looking drug. The new drugs will most likely have symbols that distinguish which company made them.
When this happens, patients may notice, the next time they pick up a refill, their medication looks different. It’s probably because the new prescription is a different generic manufacturer.
Despite the fact that medications can change shape, color, etc. from generic to generic, Higdon still stresses that patients check to make sure their medication is correct when picking up a refill that looks different.
“We don’t want errors to happen but they do,” Higdon said, “so we want you to be informed that yes your tablet instead of being pink is white and I want you to know this because if I don’t tell you this I want you to call me in case an accident did happen and the wrong medication got in the bottle.”
When the original is best
It is rare to not see a generic equivalent hit the market after a brand name’s patent expires. There are a few cases where a medication is used for a condition only affecting a few people, in which case generic manufacturers might not want to make it because it won’t be used by a lot of people.
A debate in the medical community currently going on is about which situations call for brand name medications instead of the generic counterparts. Higdon likes to look more at the condition. Practitioners, including herself, go through a lot to make sure the medication they give a patient is at the right levels in the blood stream. She said there are a few drugs which can be toxic or not have any effects if not taken at an exact level.
One situation where brand names may be preferred are patients with seizure conditions because many states will not allow people who have seizures to drive. Another is transplant patients for whom it is imperative they maintain proper medication levels so whatever has been placed in their body is able to continue to function.
