Why do generic medicines cost less than brand ones?

What are Generic Medicines?

Generic medicines are alternative to branded ones which are usually manufactured and developed once the original patent expires. In short, generic medicines are equivalent to branded drugs. All generic medicines are scientifically formulated with similar active ingredients, efficacy, dosage, and strength.

How Generic drugs differ from Branded drugs?

Though generic drugs comparatively have similar efficacy, it may not appear to be identical to branded drugs. Generic drugs differ in color, shape, packaging, expiry, name, and labeling.

Why Are Generic medicines sold at the low price?

Even though the generic drugs are alike to the branded counterparts, there are higher chances that you find these generic medicines at a considerably discounted price. According to a recent report, the Food, Drug, and Administration (FDA) of the United States noticed that generic drugs are sold comparatively at a lower price than the branded drugs at 80 to 85 percent lesser value.

If you are thinking how these generic medicines can be sold at such lesser value without compromising on its effectiveness and efficacy, then let me tell you, the price is completely dependent on the total manufacturing cost of the product.

Whenever any company ideates to create a new drug and submit its proposal to the FDA for an approval, FDA issues the company with a 20-year patent to manufacture that particular drug. This helps in preventing other rival firms from manufacturing similar drugs during that tenure. Once the company’s patent is about to expire, several other manufacturers spill their proposals to FDA for selling the generic version of the drug. However, the costing drastically goes down as the generic manufacturers don’t bear much development costs for its overpriced research and high-tech machines.

For all those companies who are involved in the formation of a new drug go through a lot of expenses such as research and trials, drug testing on a higher scale, marketing, advertising and promotion for the brand awareness.  These days, the rival firms go through a rigid competition and do not opt for any kind of extravagant clinical trials as the branded drug company has already proven its safety and effectiveness. Therefore, these generic medicines are comparatively sold at lesser values as compared to the branded ones.