- Usually a lower up front cost (the pharmaceutical patent has run out, competition has entered the space and the drug costs go down)
- Rarely, a generic with no other generic competitors can actually be more expensive than the original brand name. So, always ask your pharmacist which is less expensive.
- More time on the market allows for more data collection (Is the drug as safe as the original research suggested it was? Usually, thousands of people are part of a research study that gets a drug approved. However, once the drug goes to market, millions of people can use it. Often times, we learn about detrimental effects of the medication—after so many people have used it and the physicians start reporting these effects. Sometimes, drugs are taken off the market because of this process)
- Patients will sometimes skip doses to make the drug “last longer.” This seems to be more of an issue with expensive, brand name drugs.
- Efficacy of generic and brand name drugs is about the same in most instances. Dr. Mehta has seen a few patients throughout his career who were willing to pay the higher prices, because they insisted the brand name drugs just worked better.
- Manufacturers of generic medications do not have to have the same inactive ingredients (binders, preservatives, coating, etc.) as the brand names. Only the active ingredients have to be the same. The FDA allows a small percentage variation in the blood concentration of the active ingredient between brand names they originally approved and their generic competitors.
- Drugs can go from brand name to generic to over-the-counter (OTC; examples include Omeprazole, Certrizine, etc.). The FDA still regulates the OTC medications.
- In certain drug classes, there is a very narrow therapeutic index (NTI). This means that the drug works best within a narrow range of concentration in your blood. With generics being able to vary in the amount of drug that is concentrated in your blood, certain categories may require you to get a brand name – or at least the same generic from the same manufacturer that has proven to work for you. Some examples include blood thinners, seizure medications, cardiac arrhythmia medications, thyroid medications.