My Fear of Generic Drugs

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

Prior to becoming a stay-at-home mom I worked for a company that provided me with more than decent health benefits, including an excellent drug plan. (It far exceeded the plan my husband's company offered.) Back then I didn't think twice about choosing between brand name or generic drugs. I got sick, I got brand name medicine, and I never saw a single bill (statements-yes, bills-no).

That all changed when I decided to stay home to raise our daughter. We switched insurance companies and policies and I got a crash course in no-name drugs. Shortly after my daughter came down with her first illness (that required prescription drugs) I learned there was little to no difference between brand name drugs and generic drugs---besides the price.

This, of course, came after years of buying only brand name drugs. I admit I was very reluctant to give my precious child a medicine I believed might not be as effective as its better-known counterpart. However, at the time I was working with an insurance policy that basically didn't cover drugs and the generic was $15 less than the brand name... I figured I had little choice.

Don't get me wrong. Both the doctor and the pharmacist reassured me that the generic medicine I was giving my child was identical to the more expensive name brand version. In the end, my daughter took the generic drugs, recovered from the illness, and I learned a valuable lesson about stereotypes. Now, I wish all the prescriptions I am forced to fill had generic options, because I would probably save hundreds of dollars.

For those of you who have limited knowledge of the role generic drugs play in our economy, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in 2005, generic drugs accounted for roughly 60 percent of all prescription drug purchases in the United States. What's more, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the use of generic drugs saves consumers about $8 billion to $10 billion a year at retail pharmacies.

The idea that I would shun generic drugs may sound strange to you, but the fact is there was a time that I wasn't aware that while the names of medications may be different, the active ingredient is the same. Thanks to a kind pharmacist I learned that just like brand-name drugs, the FDA must approve the generic versions. And according to the FDA, the generic versions are identical to brand name drugs in dosage, safety, strength, quality, the way they work and the way they are taken. Basically, in order to be approved, they have to have the same chemical makeup.

The reason the original brand-name drug is more expensive than the generic version is because the pharmaceutical company completes the research, development and marketing costs of bringing the drug to market and must recoup that investment. Companies that make the generic versions don't have that overhead and are able to charge much less.

A few weeks ago I was back at the pharmacy filling another prescription for my daughter (she is currently recovering from an intestinal blockage) and I didn't think twice when the pharmacist offered me the drug's generic version. My savings: $22.

If you would like to find out if a generic drug exists for the brand-name drug you take you can enter the drug's name into the Drugs@FDA database. The site also features lists of drug approvals by month and a downloadable database file of the drugs.

Have you ever been afraid to use generic drugs?

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Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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