Pharmaceutical Comparison of Generic and Bran...

Pharmaceutical Comparison of Generic and Branded Tablets from the Indian Market

Author Name : P. N. Amale, V. D. Dakhale, G. R. Dixit, S. A. Deshpande

ABSTRACT

The concept of generic drug prescription becoming popular all over the globe.The government of India started BhartiyaJanaushadhiPariyojna. Innovators drugs are under patent period and within 180 day of expiry application for generic can be filed. Generic drugs are equivalent to the brand-name product in almost all aspects and do not require huge investment for development hence, are cheaper but equally effective. But, the general population has the misconception that generic drugs are substandard, adulterated, less effective, and are of poor quality. The present study aimed to check the difference between the generic (Branded generic), which is cheaper, and branded (Costly) drugs.

Local market analysis was done to select the most frequently sold generic and branded tablets. All the selected drugs (Levocetriczine, Diclofenac, Cefixime, Amlodipine, Metformin) were passed through various tests like Weight variation, Hardness, Friability, Disintegration, Dissolution, and Cost analysis. After rigorous tests, we found that all the selected generic and branded tablets found to pass the tests and test values are within the standard acceptable limits. However generic is cheaper than branded and the cost difference between them per tablet was found to be significant.All the generic and branded tablets are pharmaceutically equivalent and there is no significant difference between them despite the cost of generic is lower than branded tablets. Hence, generic is the better option for the branded drug which may reduce the cost of the prescription, save huge public money annually, and increased patient survival at least in the low-income group.

Keywords: Pharmaceutical evaluation, Dissolution, Pain killer, Antacid, Cost analysis