M4PNews|Chandigarh
You must have read N-number of news, talking on generic medicines and also must have seen Government endorsing Generic Medicine at large scale by opening Generic Pharmacy stores in all over the country. To date, we all think that A drug that does not carry a “Brand Name” is “Generic”. Right, this is all that you have been made to understand so far. But, Reality is far opposite, YES, We all have been fooled by Government, Pharmaceutical Companies. How? we tell you right here.
Basically, there are two types of Drugs i.e. “PATENTED DRUGS” and “OFF PATENTED DRUGS”. So, whenever a new drug molecule is developed then the original developer(pharma company) gets the patent to market that drug so that he may be able to recover the huge cost incurred in R&D (Research and Development) and formulation development. There is always a specified Time period for which the product remains under patent, only the original developer has the right to produce and sell the formulation. During that period it is called a “Patented Drug”.
Once the patent period expires, then anyone else can also copy the formula and make the equivalent formulation of the same drug and market it which is called a GENERIC version of that drug. Which means Now it is OFF PATENTED. Currently, in India, more than 90% of medicines being sold are OFF PATENTED, which means they are all basically generic versions of the long back Patented products. But these generic equivalent formulations are being sold by all big companies under “fancy brand names” and it is being termed as Branded(or ethical products). And there is a COMMON MYTH that generic product is something which doesn’t carry any brand name which is absolutely WRONG. In nutshell, a medicine is either generic (can be branded or non-branded) Or Patented. So this is how the big margins are looted from innocent people’s pockets.
And in India, there are more than 90% Medicines which are falling under generic category only. Although they are being promoted under various fancy brand names and doctors all over India are also prescribing various brands assuming/pretending as if these branded medicines are not generic.!!
As told by Mr. ASHWANI BHALLA, a Pharmaceutical Expert and (owner of Dr. Best Pharmaceutical Company endorsing and selling 80 percent lesser cost medicine in market) to Media4pillar.