About Generics

We all like to save money whenever possible. With the dramatic rise in healthcare costs, that’s become increasingly important. One of the simplest things you can do to save on medical expenses is to remember to ask your doctor or pharmacist if there’s a generic alternative for any prescription drug you are taking.

The pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money on advertising, trying to convince you their brand name drugs are somehow superior. Direct-to-consumer advertising cost them $16 billion in the year 2000. How do you think they’re paying for that?

Marketing firms want you to believe the mistaken notion that generics are somehow of inferior quality. In fact, the FDA requires that generics meet the same strict standards of safety and effectiveness as the equivalent brand name drug. The generic may be a different shape or color than the expensive brand name, but the active ingredients inside remain the same—and that’s what counts!

As you may know, patents on brand name drugs are of a limited duration (usually 20 years). Once the patent has expired, any manufacturer may make and market their own “generic” version of the medication. These generics must contain the same active ingredients and meet the same exacting FDA standards as the original, but usually cost significantly less.

Let’s look at a couple of dramatic examples (figures are drawn from RegenceRx utilization data):

Fluoxetine and diazepam may not have the familiar ring of Prozac and Valium (that’s marketing at work)—but look at the money they could save you! View additional differences in brand-name vs. generic medication costs.

It’s estimated that about half the drugs on the market have a generic equivalent. So you can understand why RegenceRx has become increasingly aggressive about promoting the use of generics. It’s such an easy and effective way to help check rising health insurance expenses without sacrificing quality of care. You’ll find that RegenceRx places most all generic drugs on our Preferred Medication List/Formulary, which means they’re available to our members for the lowest copay. Saving us money saves you money too.

Taking a cue from brand name drug promotions, we recently started a pilot program providing doctors with free generic samples. This is just one of the many ways we’re working to educate physicians and the public to the value generic drugs can be to us all.

So help us; help yourself; help control rising healthcare costs by remembering to think generic!

For additional information: A Primer: Generic Drugs, Patents and the Pharmaceutical Marketplace from the National Institute for Health Care Management.