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Generic Medications Information

A generic drug is a drug which is bio equivalent (the same) to a brand name drug with respect to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, but is normally sold for a lower price. Indian Generic medicines contain the same active ingredient at the same strength as the "innovator" brand, they are bio-equivalent, and meet the same requirements for the preparation. Therefore, generics are identical in dose, strength, safety, efficacy, and intended use.

The principal reason for the reduced cost of generic medicines is that these are manufactured by pharmaceutical companies, often located in India, which do not invest in research and development into new drugs, they only copy the designs of existing drugs. These indian companies also do not pay for television or radio advertising; the drugs they are selling have been on the market for usually a decade or more and do not need additional advertising. For the same reason, indian generic manufacturers also do not give away sample doses to promote their products. The significant research and development and marketing costs incurred by the large pharmaceutical companies in bringing a new drug to the market is often cited as the reason for the high cost of new agents - they wish to recover these costs before the patent expires. Generic manufacturers do not incur these costs, with bio-equivalence testing and the actual manufacturing process costing relatively little, and are able to charge significantly less than the "innovator" brand.

Doctors, scientists and other researchers say no. The Federal Drug Administration requires all drugs to be safe and effective. So since generic drugs use the same active ingredients and work the same way in the body as brand-name drugs, they have the same benefits and risks as their brand-name counterparts.

Indian pharmaceutical companies are grabbing headlines on an almost daily basis and are increasingly carving out market shares for themselves in the US and many other markets around the world. Several leading Indian pharmaceutical companies have applied themselves to the challenge of entering Western markets with great success. These companies now present a very serious threat to the existing Western generic companies in their domestic markets as they take ever-larger market shares and increase the levels of competition.

Updated on Mar. 2010 Indian Pharmacy Online.