Myth Of Generic Medicine in India
There are quite some misconception about the generic medicines in India. It is a well known fact that generic medicines are quite cheap in comparison to branded medicines but most of the time people are wary of taking those. Most common concern of people is quality of generic medicines. It is difficult for a common men to assertion the quality of medicines thus they go for a reputed brand or the one prescribed by the doctors. So let us try and find out some way so as to save on medicine bill.
What is Generic Medicine
When a pharmaceutical company discover a new drug, it gets the exclusive right to market that for a certain years. After completion of those years, other companies can sell that product and those are called generics. This is a simplified explanation for common men, though there are few technical/scientific additions also in this. In India, the pharmaceutical companies usually introduce such medicines by their own brand name, thus a term “Branded - Generic” is coined for those.
In India, there are only few original research molecules by Indian pharmaceutical companies, thus around 90% of medicines sold in India are generic, as per this definition.
There is another popular interpretation of generic medicines, according to which the products which are sold by the ingredient’s name and not by the brand name are know as generic drugs. But in India very few companies sell products by ingredients names. BPPI (Jan Aushadhi) is one of them.
Cost Factor
There is usually a huge cost difference in medicine products of various pharmaceutical companies. This is despite the fact that cost of many essential medicines are under price control by government of India. The difference of 20 to 50 % in cost of various brands is very common, but in some cases it can go up to 80 to 90 %. Sometimes the MRP of product by lesser know company can higher than that of a reputed company.
How to find these cheaper yet quality alternatives?
The main problem faced by patients is that they can not find these cheaper yet quality generic alternatives for prescription medicines. There are quite a few generic vendors which sells only generic medicines but they are all off line stores only. Besides this they sell products of their company only, thus they usually have limited number of medicines.
The Chemists Mart is first such online pharmacy in India, where patients can cheaper yet effective generic alternatives for prescription medicines of many pharmaceutical companies at one place. It provides the exact matching of ingredients including strength and formulation of products, for prescription medicines. It also provide feature of comparing price of various brands. The patients can save up to 80% on their medicine bill by opting for generic alternatives for prescription medicines.
Save for your health
Dr Sanjay Jain
MBBS, D.Orth
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjay-jain-50141839/