When you have been dropping your prescription in at the pharmacy you may have been asked if you would like a generic. There are many people who do not fully understand what that means and so they decide not to get it in case it is the wrong thing. However, if you do take a medicine regularly, then you should know about generic drugs and decide for yourself whether you would like to take them.
New medications and drugs are being developed by pharmaceutical companies all the time. When a company has created a new medication, they must patent it and have it approved by different bodies to protect the health and safety of citizens. The patent the drug company gets for the new medication prevents other companies from making copy medications and it protects the large investment that these companies make in creating new medications.
When the drug patent is nearing expiration, other companies can then apply to be allowed to manufacture that medication too. The drugs that are manufactured by companies other than the one that created the drug are known as generics. These are composed the same way as the original medicine, but they are less expensive for the consumer to buy at the point of sale.
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 believe that because the generic is cheaper to buy the quality must be lower. This is not the case at all.