Myth |
Fact |
Brand Names are just better. |
No – brand names are just more expensive. These days, drug companies spend much more money advertising their drugs than on expensive research for new medicines. Advertising is very expensive and it works – drug companies can get you to ask for their medicine. |
Generic equivalents and generic alternatives are the same. |
No – an equivalent means it must have the same active ingredients and act the same in your body. It is a chemical match.
An alternative does not have to be the same chemical, but many drugs that do not have equivalents have much more affordable alternatives – something that you take for the same condition that treats it just as well, even if it is not exactly the same. |
Generic equivalent medications are not as effective as brand-name medications. |
Generic equivalents are just as effective because FDA Regulations require generic medications to have the same strength, quality, purity and stability as their brand-name versions. |
Generic medications are not as safe as brand-name medications. |
FDA says generic medications are just as safe- they must contain the same active ingredients, and produce the same benefits and side effects, as the brand version. |
| Generic medications are less expensive because they are made outside the United States. |
Generic medications are less expensive than brands partly because the brand patent protection has expired. Patents protect a drug companies from having another company ‘copy’ their own drugs for several years. When the patent expires other companies can make the same medicine at less cost– which makes it easier to get and more affordable.
Drug companies also spend millions of dollars advertising their most expensive brand drugs, which adds to the cost.
Generics that are produced in other countries are often by the same US companies that produce the drug here, and so they have to go through the same FDA process as if they were in this country. |
| Most brand-name medications don’t have generic versions. |
More than half of the brand-name medications have a generic version. Generic equivalents may not exist when new drugs are first prescribed, but they are created quickly once a patent expires. Most conditions treated with prescription drugs have safe effective generic drug treatments.
And you should also ask your doctor about generic Alternatives – many drugs may not have equivalents yet, but they may have a much more affordable alternative to the brand name you are using. |
