Brand And Generic Drug Names
Branded or Generic: What’s in the name?
In 1953, Sterling Winthrop Co. filed the patent to FDA (Federal Food and Drugs Administration of USA) when it produced Acetaminophen. The company acquired the patent for brand name ‘Paracetamol’ and started marketing the drug in US. Since Sterling Winthrop was the first one to patent its production of Acetaminophen, no other company can produce the same formulation and sell it with the patented brand name. This is the significance of brand name. Generic names on the other hand are the shorten forms chemical names of the drugs. For instance: Acetaminophen is the generic name of Paracetamol and is the shortened form of its chemical name, N-(4-hydroxyphenyl) acetamide.
Generic names give us significant amount of information about the chemical nature of the drug, type of the drug, and the parent class of the drug. Generic names are often too complex to memorize and hence pharmaceutical companies market the drug with a particular brand name. Brand names are often small and easy to remember. Brand names often suggest the characteristics of the drug as well. For example:
Lopressor is the brand name of a drug which lowers the blood pressure.
Vivactil is the brand name of an antidepressant drug which makes the user vivacious and energetic.
Glucotrol is the brand name of a drug which controls the glucose level in the blood.
Skelaxin is the brand name of a drug which helps the skeletal muscles to relax.
Generic Drugs – Some facts and misconceptions
When the patent of a certain drug’s brand name expires, the company loses the patent rights and hence other pharmaceutical companies become liberal to manufacture the drug and market it. The term generic often brings along several myths. There is common misconception that generic drugs are cheap and low-quality duplicates of the original branded drugs which is not true. Generic drugs are as efficient as the original drugs and are often market at low prices.
How a Patent is required for brand drugs
When a company produces a certain drug, it can file to get a patent to reserve the rights to market the drug. Patent may be granted for the drug’s brand name, for the way drug has been chemically formulated, for the way the drug functions, even for the way the drug is streamed into our blood. Patent can be filed to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of United States. FDA grants the patent after through examination and analysis of the drug. Usually patents are granted for a time period of 20 years.
When the patent expires
When the patent expires, the company loses its exclusive rights to produce and market the drug. Off-patent drugs are then assigned a generic drug name by United States Adopted Names (USAN) Council and are approved for manufacturing by other pharmaceutical companies. Not all off-patent drugs are being manufactured as generic drugs.
Generic Drugs As Good As Brand Name Drugs?
A recent review in the Journal of the American Medical Association proved the clinical equivalence of generic and brand name drugs by analyzing 47 studies of cardiovascular disease.
Are generic drugs equal to brand name products?
As far as how they compare in quality, here’s the scoop: The active ingredients — the things that make the brand-name drug work in the first place — are also found in the generic version. What might be different are the generic drug’s.
Generic vs brand name birth control
I would also guess that there are a lot of women out there for whom a generic drug works better than the brand-name, you just don’t generally get switched to a brand-name from a generic that’s working well, so we hear about this less.
By law, generics have to be chemically identical to there brand name counterparts. So essentially, the only difference between a generic drug and a brand name drug is the marketing. Thats why they are more exspensive. You are not paying for a more effective medication, but essentially a nice package and all those annoying commercials.