As one-by-one the 20-year patent protections have expired on brand-name (propriety) prescription drugs, generic versions of many have become available, with more to follow in the near future.
Generic medications are good news for consumers, who can save 40 percent to 80 percent over the cost of the same brand-name drugs.
At the same time, generics have created financial headaches for some large pharmaceutical companies. Annual expenditures in this country for prescription drugs are currently about $275 billion. The fall-off in sales of their big-earning medications has already led to employee lay-offs, with more likely.
Generic drugs are cheaper than brand-name drugs, but are they as safe and effective as the brand-name variety?
Before a generic drug can be marketed, it must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). To gain approval, a generic must contain the same active ingredients as the brand-name medication, though inactive ingredients may vary. In addition, the generic must be identical in strength, dosage form, and route of administration; have the same indications for use; and be manufactured under the same strict FDA standards as the original. Because all generics must meet these qualifications, the FDA says they are equal to their brand-name counterparts in safety and effectiveness.
Nonetheless, 22 percent of consumers in a 2002 survey indicated they thought that generic drugs might be less effective or of poorer quality than brand-name drugs.
I have not hesitated to purchase generic medications. A recent experience did show, however, that a generic may not have all the desirable qualities of the brand-name drug. When refilling a prescription for a medication I have been taking for a number of years, I was informed that the co-pay with my insurance plan would be $75 for the brand-name product but only $30 for a newly available generic.
I chose the generic when the pharmacist told me that the generic was scored with a notch around its middle like the brand-name tablets so that I could continue to easily cut the pills in half.
To my dismay, however, I found that the generic pills were much smaller than the original, which made cutting them exactly in half extremely difficult. The cut pills are often either too large or too small. Although receiving the exact dose of this particular medication each day is not critical for me, such differences in daily dosage might create problems for those trying to accurately split this or other pills.
Some of the major brand-name drugs now available as generics include Ambien, Cipro, Flonase, Glucophage, Lopresor, Prozac, Synthroid, Tenormin, ToprolXL, Wellbutrin, Xanax, Zestril, Zoloft, and Zyban.
After getting the approval of the customer, a pharmacist will substitute a generic for a brand-name drug unless the physician has specified on the prescription that only the brand-name drug should be dispensed.
You can search for current generic equivalents by using the Electronic Orange Book.
Look for the proprietary "brand" name or for the name of the drug's active ingredient. Generic equivalents are expected in 2008 for the osteoporosis-preventing drug Fosamax, for the anti-ulcer medication Prevacid in 2009, and in 2011 for the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, which is presently the best-selling drug worldwide. Other generic statins have already cut into sales of Lipitor.
