Do you use generic drugs? Are they safe? Can they save you money? Tim Colligan, Director of Pharmacy at Optima Health, shares his insights into the value of using generic drugs.

The truth behind Generic Drugs.

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Welcome to Generic Biotech Drugs. A generic biotech drug is a drug which is produced and distributed without patent protection. The generic biotech drug may still have a patent on the formulation but not on the active ingredient. A generic must contain the same active ingredients as the original formulation.

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By extension, therefore, generics are considered (by the FDA) identical in dose, strength, route of administration, safety, efficacy, and intended use. The FDA’s use of the word identical is very much a legal interpretation, and is not literal. In most cases, generic products are available once the patent protections afforded to the original developer have expired.

When generic products become available, the market competition often leads to substantially lower prices for both the original brand name product and the generic forms. The time it takes a generic drug to appear on the market varies. In the US, drug patents give twenty years of protection, but they are applied for before clinical trials begin, so the effective life of a drug patent tends to be between seven and twelve years.

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According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, retail prescription prices increased from an average of .67 in 1994 to .26 in 2006. That’s almost triple the annual inflation rate. For many people, an increase in prices means an increased use of generic medications. icyou’s Rebecca Fox helps answer questions about the differences between the options. For more health related videos, please visit www.icyou.com
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Dr. Krobot talks about the tests generic drugs must pass to be approved by the FDA. www.unmc.edu/askunmc

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The History of Generic Drugs

The history and the story of generic drugs is very long. But as a layman, all we need to understand clearly is that these generic drugs are nothing but “general drugs” or you can say cheap representation of original drugs. Basically to make a drug requires years of research in the laboratory first and then once prepared the drug has to undergo many clinical and market tests. All in all to put it the entire point from the point of view of consumer, the process of drug making is not only hugely time consuming but also very – very expensive.

Before these drugs are launched in the market, they need to have a patent. There after they are presented before the market for sale. The problem with these drugs is that they are exorbitantly priced for the company has to make for all the investments it did for the drug. It is at this juncture that the Generic drugs come to the seen.

Generic drugs do not have patent protection and that makes the generic drugs cheaper because they don’t have to waste time and money in patenting process. Generic drugs though maintain the original formula and active ingredients of the originally researched drug. Generic drugs just take a short cut to patenting process and the research process and these two factors make all the difference in the cost of the generic drug.

For the consumer, generic drugs are a boon. Economically weaker section of society that also includes a large percentage of older population is hugely benefited by the generic drugs. These generic drugs have the same composition yet are much cheaper than the original drugs. Being affordably priced these generic drugs can be easily purchased by the economically weaker section of society who would have otherwise ailed through the illness due to costly drugs.

Generic drugs are identical to the original drug in all aspects, be it dose, strength or effect. Generic drugs have a hugely competitive market and this in turn is beneficial for the consumers in the form of reduced prices. Generic drugs are the bio equivalent version of original drug. This simply means that they are identical in composition and formulation to original drug. Generic drugs are not much different than the brand named drug, except actually the brand name. In fact generic drugs are much more common and widely used.

Generic drugs are a boon in disguise, both for the consumer and the

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Generic Drugs Are Need Of Time

Everybody knows that economic recession is hitting the world badly and thus every one wants to save their money in whatever way possible. One most essential thing that every one needs is the medicine, whatever it may be to survive and fight back the disease, we always need medicines. But, nowadays ever medicines have become so expensive. So many people tend to avoid them and land up in a big problem than before. Right now the demand for the high quality, low costs drugs is very more. The good news is that we have an option of the generic drugs available that are high in quality and low in price. The only need is to understand and not to believe in myths like generic drugs are or inferior quality. Generic drugs are the cheapest available option of the branded drugs in the market and show the same effects like the generic drugs. The most important thing is that generic drugs are approved by the FDA and WHO.

The financial income of the people is greatly affected because of the financial crises. All the markets are sinking because they are suffering too much lose. But, humans can not live without the medications if they have the ill health. Thus, to all these men generic drugs could be a best option to save the money. Reasons for the cheap price of the generic drug are— the cost of production of generic drug is very less as compared with the original brand name companies, no investment is done for the research on generic drug as the research is already conducted by the brand name manufacturer, clinical trials are not conducted by the generic drug manufacturer because they are previously conducted by the brand name manufacturer, and no cost is involved in the advertising and marketing of the generic drug because they get the benefit of the advertising and marketing done by the original drug manufacturer. Thus, generic drug allows the manufacturer to earn lots of profits.

Generic drugs not only save the money of the customers but also save the investment of the government in the pharmaceutical sector. US govt. has saved about 1 Billion dollars because of the generic drugs in the year 2007-08. Insurers are also very beneficial due to the use of the generic drugs. Insurance companies are asking the doctors to follow the step therapy that means doctors should first prescribe the generic drugs and if these drugs fail to produce the required effect then they should prescribe the more expensive brand-name drugs. FDA is sending pamphlets to the big pharmacy chain in US to promote the generic drugs. FDA is even asking these pharmacies to promote the sale of generic drugs. FDA says that all drugs must work well and be safe. FDA makes sure that before approving that generic drugs are of high quality, strong, pure, and stable as their respective brand-name drugs.

Generic drugs are allowed to be sold in the market only after they satisfy the following criteria:

•    Generic drug should have the

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