When your doctor prescribes a generic drug, are you pleased, indifferent or affronted? Or are you perhaps uncertain and wondering what exactly generic means and how it will affect you?

Health authorities and insurers in many countries want to encourage physicians to prescribe generics because they are cheaper. Patients can benefit from that but also need to be assured that they are still getting the best medicine and not merely a cheaper form of second-class therapy.

What is a generic drug?

All drugs have a generic name. They can also have a brand name.

A generic name is that of the active drug substance. A brand name is the registered trademark under which the drug is being sold.

For example, Prozac is the brand of a drug whose generic name is fluoxetine. The generic name of Viagra is sildenafil. In most countries of the industrialised world, doctors may prescribe drugs either by their generic or their brand names.

As long as the active drug substance is protected by patents, only the patent holder’s own brand name or those that are licensed under agreements with the patent holder may be used. Once the patent has expired, other companies may register the drug with health authorities and sell it under their own brand names or by its generic name. In the USA and the UK, most generics are unbranded, whereas in some countries generics are commonly branded.

Related articles

Generics and You (Part 2): The doctor’s choice: brand or generic?
Generics and You (Part 3): In which countries are you most likely to receive a generic prescription?
Generics and You (Part 4): Are generics ‘first class’ medicine?
Generics and You (Part 5): Biosimilars
Generics and You (Part 6): The fourth question about generics
Generics and You (Part 7): You and generics