Related Content. Take Quiz. Ovarian Cancer. All rights reserved. Other companies that file for approval to market the off-patent drug must use the same generic name but can create their own brand name. As a result, the same generic drug may be sold under either the generic name for example, ibuprofen or one of many brand names such as Advil or Motrin.
Generic and brand names must be unique to prevent one drug from being mistaken for another when drugs are prescribed and prescriptions are dispensed.
To prevent this possible confusion, the FDA must agree to every proposed brand name. However, doctors often use the brand name on prescriptions, because it is easier to remember and doctors usually learn about new drugs by the brand name. Generic names are usually more complicated and harder to remember than brand names. Brand names often suggest a characteristic of the drug. For example, Lopressor lowers blood pressure, Glucotrol controls high blood sugar glucose levels, and Skelaxin relaxes skeletal muscles.
The term generic, when applied to such items as foods and household products, is used to describe a less expensive, sometimes less effective or lower-quality copycat version of a brand-name product. It is not enough for them In fact, generic drug makers manufacture many brand-name products for companies that control the brand names. Sometimes, more than one generic version of a drug is available.
For example, many manufacturers sell versions of acetaminophen , a nonprescription drug commonly used to relieve pain and fever.
In the United States, a company that develops a new drug can be granted a patent for the drug itself, for the way the drug is made, for the way the drug is to be used, and even for the method of delivering and releasing the drug into the bloodstream. Thus, a company often owns more than one patent for a drug. Patents grant the company exclusive rights to a drug for 20 years. Additional patents can sometimes be filed to extend the patent life.
Usually, about 10 years elapse between the time a drug is discovered when the patent is obtained and the time the drug is approved for human use, leaving the company only about half of the patent time to exclusively market a new drug.
The Food and Drug Administration FDA may choose to accelerate the approval process for drugs to treat acquired immunodeficiency syndrome AIDS , cancer, and other life-threatening disorders when no current effective treatment exists. This patency may take up to 20 years and during this period, the company will produce and sell the drug under a brand name to recover its investment and make a profit.
With time, this name becomes synonymous with the drug. But after the patency expires, other companies are allowed to produce a similar drug. It is what gave rise to brand and generic name in drugs. Examples of brand name and generic drugs can be cited with following diabetes and hypertension drugs. Metformin is a generic drug for diabetes, but its brand name is Glucophage.
Similarly, Metoprolol is a generic drug for hypertension but its brand name is Lopressor. These drugs will be known by different names in different countries, but the generic name remain constant. The difference between brand name and generic drugs is in the circumstances of producing the drugs. While brand name drug refers to the name giving by the producing company, generic drug refers to a drug produced after the active ingredient of the brand name drug.
Generic drugs will, however, be sold under different brand names, but will contain the same active ingredients as the brand-name drug. But with regards to the effectiveness of the drugs, generic drugs have the same quality active ingredient as brand name drugs. All drugs must comply with strict directive and supervision of the Food and Drug Administration FDA in the US and equivalent institutions in other countries. For branding purposes, generic drugs are not exactly the same in look, color, tastes and shape as the brand name drugs and must have its unique brand name.
These areas of differences are noticeable between brand name and generic drugs and among generic drugs as well. It means you will get different drugs names with the same active ingredients, and this active ingredient is what refers to the generic drug.
Trade laws forbid generic drugs to look exactly like the brand-name drugs but must all have the same active ingredients for the same medicinal effects.
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