While I went to get some more Ibuprofen I thought what’s the difference beside the prices?
Of course I bought the generic because I have yet to find out why the name brand cost more.
Mostly cost of advertising plus name recognition.
For OTC drugs, there’s literally no difference. For prescription drugs, there are occasionally differences in inert ingredients-- I know someone who can’t take a generic version of a drug because it has Aspartame in it; she needs to get the brand name, which has sugar. Every year her doctor has to write a letter to her insurance company explaining this, so they will pay for it.
However, and here’s where it gets tricky: for some people, name brand drugs have an added placebo response, so they work better. Literally. The placebo response is a conditioned response, not a psychological trick, really; animals can experience the placebo response, while memory-impaired humans usually do not-- it depends on the degree of memory impairment. If you really think the name brand works better for you, and you experience it as working better, to the point that you are willing to pay more, then by all means do; it may be worth it. It’s usually older people who bought a name brand for years before generic was available, but some people are convinced that the generic from CVS works better than the one from any place else. If that is that person’s experience, it probably does work that way, for them, but it won’t work that way for you (unless they have undue influence over you).
If you are convinced the generic, purchased wherever, is just as good, then you should buy the cheapest you can find. Lucky you. You have avoided being conditioned to respond better to some brand, color, label, or form of the medicine. I’m with you. But some people have been conditioned to respond to pills of a certain shape, or gelcaps, or something, and so for them, they work better.
Yes they are usually the same active ingredient. Generics are usually for drugs that are so cheap to produce, it would be counter productive to fake or skimp on the manufacturing process - yet popular enough to always have a demand.
I mean, there may be slightly less quality control, or uneven distribution in terms of the ingredients across the tablet, pack, but this will be negligible.
It’s so cheap for one simple reason - the big name brands are aiming to recoup the money they’ve spent on advertising, marketing, branding and other expenses, including wages. It’s the same reason why Apple charge a fortune for their iPhones relative to their competitors. They spend more on marketing than anyone else.
Don’t forget, the factory may be in poorer country or the staff involved may receive significantly lower wages than the big name brand employees, again lowering the prices.
Drug are just chemicals. A ‘generic’ drug is literally the same chemical as a brand name drug, just without the brand name.
Saying one is superior would be like saying “Our version of Oxygen has more Oxygen in it!”
I can only speak for myself but I definitely think there can be a difference. I am prescribed Tramadol and I get the generic version. These generics are produced by certain drug manufacturers and when I get a refill it will usually be from 2 or 3 of these manufacturers. Without a doubt, there is a particular manufacturer that produces a generic form of Tramadol that is significantly weaker than any other manufacturer. I take 200 milligrams of Tramadol/day under normal circumstances. However, when I get a refill from this particular manufacturer I must take 100mg more just to experience similar pain relief that I normally get from 200mg of any other manufacturer. Honestly, I don’t understand this.
Generic will often have a different sort of “filler” that some people may be allergic to. Think of heroin, and dealers will cut it with something when it arrives. If you’re lucky it’ll be cut just with something like baking soda, while I recall one time reading about a big batch that had been cut with rat poison and so was wreaking havoc. Drug fillers are something like that. If you’re not allergic to the filler, then generic is a good deal.
Huh, that’s interesting. it’s not the drugs in question but the fillers. Gotta look into that.
That’s a prescription drug. It could lack an inert ingredient that the other ones contain (sugar, for example), that stimulates your body to process it, or it could have something else that clears it out of your body more quickly. It may in fact, be just as potent a medication, but the inert ingredients don’t “work” for you somehow. I don’t really know what to suggest. You can probably use the internet to figure out who the manufacturer of a particular version is, and what the inert ingredients are, but then chasing down which one is screwing you up, I don’t know how to do.
I’ve found that generic drugs may lack something like a coating to mask the nasty taste of a pill, whereas the name brand will have the coating. I’ve had this experience with generic version of Imitrex, a migraine abortive. The generic pill tastes like a skunk smells. Yes, that bad. Not a good thing to have to take when your already nauseated due to migraine.
It also may not dissolve at the same rate. You can ask the pharmacy to NOT use a certain generic if you find it doesn’t work as well.
I have never noticed a difference, but some people swear they notice a difference. It could be that they have a bad reaction to some of the binders and fillers in some of the generics, I don’t know. Also drug manufacturing is a global industry, I don’t know how stringent QC and QA are for the manufacturing process. Does a factory in India have to pass FDA guidelines?
I had a professor claim that the branded version of some drugs has a higher ratio of active enantiomers. I have no idea if that was true, I assume if the drug has an active and inactive enantiomer, the ratio for a mixture drug is probably 50:50.
Edit, apparently quality control in India for products that end up in the US is an issue. As a guess, maybe some generics cut corners for the manufacturing of the actual active ingredient, and end up with a lower quality product vs other generics or branded medications.
I am totally cool with generic drugs, except for ONE spectacular brand. It’s a drug to treat GORD, and the generic one doesn’t bloody work for me like the branded-one does. I have no idea why, or how the chemical composition differs, but it Just Doesn’t Work.
Every other generic I’ve done…fine!
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As noted, how the active ingredient is packaged can make a big difference. I was once on a drug where the brand name didn’t cause heartburn but the generic did. The brand name people apparently knew about the chance of heartburn and added a buffer. The generic folk didn’t care or bother. Some of these extras affect the potency, absorbability of the drug.
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Generic companies are more likely to cut really big corners. There have been at least two scandals regarding generic thyroid replacement hormones. Companies either using inferior quality source material or just not putting in the stated amount.
OTOH, once in a while the generic is better than the name brand version.
They are only alike in theory. Theory is not reality.
What’s GORD? A typo for GERD? Or something completely different?
People still drink bottled water when there’s usually a perfectly safe, decent-tasting tap nearby.
Alternative spelling, apparently.
Ah, those Brits! :smack:
Here is a much more detailed description of the scandal. Really terrifying stuff. This really does make me worry about taking generic drugs.
I’ve never noticed a difference with tablets, but with topical medications it can matter quite a lot. When I was a teenager, my dermatologist gave me Retin-A (topical retinoic acid). The brand name stuff worked as advertised. The generic was in a completely different kind of ointment base that smelled like hemorrhoid cream, and had just about as much effect on my acne.
OTOH, now that you can get low-level retinol creams at the drugstore, I like the CVS generic better than brands like Oil of Olay. CVS loads in a lot less crap, particularly less fragrance.