Generics

• The active substance
•  Content of the active substance
•  Quality and period of expiration
•  Method and area of application.

Generics have the same therapeutic use as comparable, already-known drugs. The only difference is in their name and price; generics are traded under a different name and when launched on the market they are also half as cheap as comparable original drugs.

Cheaper thanks to requests of basic research elimination

The development of medicaments requires costly and expensive research works. Therefore the new effective substances are usually under patent protection for many years. After this protection period expiration the other pharmaceutical companies can launch medicaments with the active substance given. The companies offering generics then buy proved active substances from the known manufacturers and produce genergic version of the original drugs. This way high research costs are eliminated. These costs represent approximately 15 to 20 percent of the drug price. There have been some substantial progresses achieved in connection with pharmaceutical technologies and medical know-how regarding drug optimum production. Based on that, generics can be nowadays produced in the most modern production conditions with considerably low costs. These advantages are, in terms of production and costs, mirrored in their prices.

In-depth tested drugs

The Medicine Act sets what drugs can be free for public to buy and what drugs people must have prescription for. The strictest quality and efficiency control regulations applies not only to the original drugs but also to the generics. Each of the drugs has to undergo a complex process of testing and approving. In connection with a generic attention is paid to its interchangeability with the original drug without any potential risk for the patients. Generics effectiveness and biological availability in the body have to correspond with the effectiveness and biological availability in the body of the original drug.
In technical term this interchangeability is called “bio-equivalence”. Thanks to this bio-equivalence the patients are given a guarantee that the generics are, in terms of safety and effectiveness, of the same quality as the original drug.

It is the active substance that helps, not the name

In many countries generics have recently become a cost-effective, yet equal alternative to the expensive drugs the patent protection period of which have expired. Each second prescribed medicament in Germany is a generic. In terms of medicine there is no difference in prescribing generic or to this generic equal original drug. It is the active substance and composition of the drug that influences whether and how a medicine works, not its name presented on the package.