When you have left a prescription at the pharmacy you may have been asked whether you would like to take a generic medication. Many people do not really understand what this means and so they decide to err on the side of caution and stick to the brand name drug. If you do take a regular medication, then it is worth knowing about generic drugs and whether they may be suitable for you.

There are new drugs that are being researched and then developed in pharmaceutical companies all the time. When a company has made a new drug that they want to bring to the market, they have to patent it and then submit it for approval with the FDA. When the company has a patent for the medication, other companies cannot manufacture the same drug and this protects the company that created the medicine against losing money on the research and development.

When the patent on the medication is nearing expiration, other pharmaceutical manufacturers can apply to the Food and Drug Administration for permission to manufacture generic versions of the medication. These are chemically the same and include all of the same active ingredients and strengths as the brand name drug. However, since the companies have not had to pay for expensive research and development on the medication, they can be sold more cheaply.

A further reason generics are cheaper is that the brand name company also spends a lot of money on marketing and advertising of the medication. Not only do they advertise and market to the public, but they also send medical representatives to doctors and pharmacists to promote the drug, as well as pass on promotional material and samples. This adds considerable cost to the sale of the medication.

Some people worry that because they are buying a cheaper version of the drug that it is inferior in some way. This is a major misconception about generics. A company cannot create a generic version of a drug without first having approval from the government and to do this the strength, actives, composition and safety of the medication is stringently tested.

There are a couple of other misconceptions people have about generic drugs. One of these is that they are not as strong or that they take a longer time to be absorbed and work in your body: this is untrue, they work in exactly the same way as the brand name does. Other people have the idea that the cheaper version is manufactured in sub-standard facilities to the brand version and this is also completely untrue.

The only difference between the medications may be that they look different since the law says they cannot look the same as the brand name drug. The shape, color or size of the medication may appear a little different, but the active ingredients inside the pill are just the same. If you would like to try taking generic drugs, then you can either tell your pharmacist next time you go to get your prescription filled or talk to your doctor about it.

Generic drugs are not available for every medication, but they are available for a number of them. If you take a medication regularly and you would like to try the generic drugs, tell your pharmacist next time you go to fill the prescription. If you are still worried about using generic drugs, you can talk to your doctor more about the idea.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 3:03 am and is filed under Spa Treatments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.