Generic medicines Questions

+1. Online pharmacy appa like 1mg, truemeds, pharmeasy, netmeds etc have so many alternatives from lesser known companies, are they really effective?

I dont have that much idea  bro tag some doctors but i can suggest u to watch one episode from satyamev jayate regarding generic medicine (amir khan was host)

kukdookoo wrote:
do generic or small pharmaceutical companies maintain quality?

Some do.

The GMP standards or guidelines are more of less standardised.

Many a times, it is not just the formulation or the generic that has intrinsic issues.. but could also be allied reasons related to primary  packing (flexi pack, blister packing, bottles and so on), batch storage or other issues after leaving the plant/premises.

Though big brands maintain quality to some extent, there is of course no surety of quality in unknown brands. 

So instead of buying generic medicines online, buy from local reputed shops. They might have slight knowledge of counterfeit medicines.

EkakiAmi wrote:

I dont have that much idea  bro tag some doctors but i can suggest u to watch one episode from satyamev jayate regarding generic medicine (amir khan was host)

can you share its link bro? 

shivrajsingh wrote:

Though big brands maintain quality to some extent, there is of course no surety of quality in unknown brands. 

So instead of buying generic medicines online, buy from local reputed shops. They might have slight knowledge of counterfeit medicines.

kukdookoo wrote:
what do you think about this?

Some formulation might have peculiar subtle dynamics.. be it of composition of APIs or the deliver method.

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For example.. Metformin SR... is substantially different in how base formulation of Metformin interacts during and after digestion.

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The 'sustained release' method of dosage does play a significant role.. which is better not to ignore or replace.

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The more critical the medical condition or physical trauma or disease.. the more nuanced certain formulations can get.

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Yes, the pricing structure and the rebates offered to industry.. by the brands, manufacturers... is no secret to anyone.

Anything and everything from paracetamol to stunts to drugs meant to manage SMN protein (for conditions like spinal muscular atrophy.. are often protected using the questionable industry practice of evergreening.

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That said.. for non critical care drugs or those which are relatively comparable in their drug delivery method.. across generics versus formulations... on the face of it.. there is no adverse impact if formulation are replaced by genetics from reputed manufacturers who uphold GMP and have high adherence to overall standards.

Big company also want to recover r&d cost, manufacturing quality, r&d cost if any. Plus profits also.

I prefer the branded only especially if it's of high importance for eg: kidney or heart related.

Normal multivitamin I get from sarkari aushadi stores.

Problem with generic medicines is you need to get 2-3 different tablets to get the right combination present in single tablet.

Also you can check with doctor for alternate companies manufacturing same tablet with different name and exactly same composition

kukdookoo wrote:
question is not about counterfeit or real paji, question is can generic or less known/small pharmaceuticals companies be trusted here or not for things related to heart? In us the fda would eat a company alive if the quality is not maintained but no such department exists here.

For heart I would generally avoid

raman12 wrote:

Big company also want to recover r&d cost, manufacturing quality, r&d cost if any. Plus profits also.

I prefer the branded only especially if it's of high importance for eg: kidney or heart related.

Normal multivitamin I get from sarkari aushadi stores.

Problem with generic medicines is you need to get 2-3 different tablets to get the right combination present in single tablet.

Also you can check with doctor for alternate companies manufacturing same tablet with different name and exactly same composition

Normal multivitamin I get from sarkari aushadi stores.

raman12 wrote:

For heart I would generally avoid

EkakiAmi wrote:
tag some doctors

@parthj.amin @cm4444  @pandaman @limbo @drjpatwa @romilq

Our CDSCO is a joke

So nobody maintains standards to full extent.

Atleast for reputed brands their reputation is at stake which forces them to maintain certain standard. For unknown companies bindaas.

kukdookoo wrote:

Normal multivitamin I get from sarkari aushadi stores.

do government gets them manufactured from pharmaceutical companies and acts as a middleman here?

Quality of drug manufacturing and surety of its pharmacodynamics. These are maintained by the branded companies. While the generic one may or may not maintain it. Its like Maaza , Slice, Real . All make katrina and  kiara and pooja orgasm with mango juice. They have same mango but a little different 

Recently even the biggest generic brands were found to be selling some meds that were Not of Standard Quality so... According to the great Ministry of Health NSQ meds can't cause bodily harm so the previous provisions that included the possibility of criminal prosecution have been watered down in a new bill. 

P.S. I found the local Jan Ausadhi store selling 160mg of Fexofenadine which is not all a standard dosage. The JA app itself correctly mentions 120 & 180mg.Upon enquiring with the customer service they kept several people in the loop, agreed that it wasn't standard dosage and asked me to provide a pic of the package. I went there about a week later when the weather had cleared up a bit and to my surprise  the entire stock was no longer available. There were at least half a dozen packs and Fexofenadine isn't a particularly popular one from what I gather. Maybe the JA folks had recalled it? Anyway my followup email received no response and I left it at that. Even if it's just a case of printing mistake it doesn't inspire much confidence. I ordered a generic alternative via Medplus. Most offline stores were keen to peddle Allegra which costs 4x. 

LIMBO wrote:

Recently even the biggest generic brands were found to be selling some meds that were Not of Standard Quality so... According to the great Ministry of Health NSQ meds can't cause bodily harm so the previous provisions that included the possibility of criminal prosecution have been watered down in a new bill. 

P.S. I found the local Jan Ausadhi store selling 160mg of Fexofenadine which is not all a standard dosage. The JA app itself correctly mentions 120 & 180mg.Upon enquiring with the customer service they kept several people in the loop, agreed that it wasn't standard dosage and asked me to provide a pic of the package. I went there about a week later when the weather had cleared up a bit and to my surprise  the entire stock was no longer available. There were at least a dozen packs and Fexofenadine isn't a particularly popular one from what I gather. Maybe the JA folks had recalled it? Anyway my followup email received no response and I left it at that. Even if it's just a case of printing mistake it doesn't inspire much confidence. I ordered a generic alternative via Medplus. Most offline stores were keen to peddle Allegra which costs 4x. 

kukdookoo wrote:
Paji leave aside jan asudhi stores, say a very small unheard company is selling a medicine with the same salt but at 90% less price. These medicines are usually available on medicine shops, can those be trusted? these are not generic medicines but medicines having the same salt.

Neversaynever wrote:
A blood thinner is not something one should mess with, even if it is just a salt

kukdookoo wrote:
Paji leave aside jan asudhi stores, say a very small unheard company is selling a medicine with the same salt but at 90% less price. These medicines are usually available on medicine shops, can those be trusted? these are not generic medicines but medicines having the same salt.

Not all the way. Only the top 10 or so generic makers can be considered. NSQ can mean for example an unethical company can include just 20mg instead of 500mg Azithromycin which was the case recently. You can well imagine the fallout in case of meds used for treating life threatening conditions. Spurious or counterfeit meds is in a different league altogether. 

P.S. Even a somewhat thorough Google search fails to shed any light on the manufacturers of JA meds. 

kukdookoo wrote:
to conclude for example lupin pharmaceutical selling a medicine for rs. 500 but some abcd pharmaceutical selling the same medicine with same salt for rs. 100 (not generic) then the abcd should be avoided? be it related to heart or any other thing

LIMBO wrote:

Not all the way. Only the top 10 or so generic makers can be considered. NSQ can mean for example an unethical company can include just 20mg instead of 500mg Azithromycin which was the case recently. You can well imagine the fallout in case of meds used for treating life threatening conditions. Spurious or counterfeit meds is in a different league altogether. 

P.S. Even a somewhat thorough Google search fails to shed any light of the manufacturers of JA meds. 

there is a confusion here, lupin pharmaceutical selling a medicine with warfarin is normal medicine that one gets from a medicine shop.

jan ashudi stores selling the same at like 80-90% less are generic medicines, these one's are very hard or impossible to find in normal medicine shops.

now say a very small or never heard of pharmaceutical company selling medicine with warfarin again at 50-60% less price than lupin's, is this a generic medicine? these are too only available in medicine shops only. + @DeciDeaim @raman12 @shivrajsingh

kukdookoo wrote:

there is a confusion here, lupin pharmaceutical selling a medicine with warfarin is normal medicine that one gets from a medicine shop.

jan ashudi stores selling the same at like 80-90% less are generic medicines, these one's are very hard or impossible to find in normal medicine shops.

now say a very small or never heard of pharmaceutical company selling medicine with warfarin again at 50-60% less price than lupin's, is this a generic medicine? these are too only available in medicine shops only. + @DeciDeaim

@romilq

I think if the salt is same then one can take generic meds, no harm in that.

Even civil hospital doc's gave generic meds.

140 cr ki abadi branded nhi khati.

Rahi baat quality ki, vo toh branded mai bhi guaranteed nhi hai as u urself said they qc bodies.

Apni jeb dekho , genuine substitute lo doc ki salah se.

Brands heavy promotion karti hai bribe karti hai naam bnati hai rnd mai invest karti hai isiliy mhengi hoti hai.

Not sure but unka patent ek period ke liy haihota , uske baad koi bhi vo formula use karke med bna sakta hai tabhi generic banti hai.

Generic - no rnd, no promotion no bribe, isiliy sasti

kartikxxx wrote:

I think if the salt is same then one can take generic meds, no harm in that.

Even civil hospital doc's gave generic meds.

140 cr ki abadi branded nhi khati.

Rahi baat quality ki, vo toh branded mai bhi guaranteed nhi hai as u urself said they qc bodies.

Apni jeb dekho , genuine substitute lo doc ki salah se.

Brands heavy promotion karti hai bribe karti hai naam bnati hai rnd mai invest karti hai isiliy mhengi hoti hai.

Not sure but unka patent ek period ke liy haihota , uske baad koi bhi vo formula use karke med bna sakta hai tabhi generic banti hai.

Generic - no rnd, no promotion no bribe, isiliy sasti

For heart medications avoid generic medicines unless it is very common drug like some beta blocker. I myself do not trust generic drug manufacturers to maintain quality. I mean kitna quality control hoga I don't know. During corona I had very bad experiences with multiple generic brands. Maybe it was specific to that time coz corona ke time bahut fakes aa gaye the market me sabhi drugs ke. But some manufacturers do not even have any website, nothing comes up on Google search still they were selling very important drugs.

I’ll answer in basic language  

Generic medicines carry substitute salt which isn’t mass tested/no decent studies availability nor patent that’s why it’s cheaper. Always RISKY! 

Branded ones recommended by doctors are tested with study on mass number so doc’s don’t take risk while recommending you that. They know it’ll work. Now, here comes 3 situations: 

1. If you can afford, you really won’t be asking this question and moving to branded ones. 

2. If you can afford but don’t want to waste money on medicine, you’ll check all alternatives and take risk for generic to save some money. Money isn’t > than life. 

3. If you can’t afford, you’ll go for generic medicine. 

I can give you my example; I’m taking rybelsus 14mg per day, just 3 strips of this cost me 11,400/month. If I couldn’t afford, I would’ve opted for generic one. 🤷‍♂️

Faug wrote:

I’ll answer in basic language  

Generic medicines carry substitute salt which isn’t mass tested/no decent studies availability nor patent that’s why it’s cheaper. Always RISKY! 

Branded ones recommended by doctors are tested with study on mass number so doc’s don’t take risk while recommending you that. They know it’ll work. Now, here comes 3 situations: 

1. If you can afford, you really won’t be asking this question and moving to branded ones. 

2. If you can afford but don’t want to waste money on medicine, you’ll check all alternatives and take risk for generic to save some money. Money isn’t > than life. 

3. If you can’t afford, you’ll go for generic medicine. 

I can give you my example; I’m taking rybelsus 14mg per day, just 3 strips of this cost me 11,400/month. If I couldn’t afford, I would’ve opted for generic one. 🤷‍♂️

Well said.

Government spends a lot in advertises to create impression that generic is standard and brands are looting by charging higher. One shouldn't fall into that trap.

If the dose is less or components are only few of the mentioned, they manufacture for less but who's the ultimate loser. It is safe to take doesn't mean it is good to take.