Generic Drugs - Yes Or No?

By Author: Steven Johnson
Total Articles: 494
Comment this article

There's a lot of hype surrounding generic drugs these days. Many online and real world drugstores carry both brand and generic variations of the same drugs, providing the customer with the choice of buying more expensive and less expensive drugs for the same purpose. Some say that generics are just as effective as branded variations and there's no real sense in overpaying for a well-known name when you get the same benefits from a small drug producer that sells his pills for a really affordable price. Other advocate the use of branded drugs stating that the quality control at big enterprises is superior to that of smaller drug manufacturers from third world countries, and the risk of ending up with poor quality drugs in the cases of branded variations is virtually absent. Who's right and who's wrong in this never-ending debate?

Let's take an example of a popular ED drug Cialis. It's one of the most recently introduced drugs for treating erectile dysfunction in men and is by far the most effective, hence very popular among those struggling with impotence. Cialis has reached in popularity the legendary Viagra that created ...
... the whole market of ED pills in 1998. Viagra already has a wide range of generics sold through the Internet that cost a fraction of what you would pay for a typical blue pill in your local pharmacy. However, Cialis has also entered this race for diversity as more and more online vendors offer third party generic variations of the Weekend Pill. Many customers get interested in the low price of such drugs and question whether they can safely purchase such medications without risking their health.

When it comes to production of generic variations of famous drug brands including Cialis, people often worry about the chemicals used in the process. It may come as a surprise for most readers, but the biggest part of the raw chemicals that both the large pharmaceutical corporations and small third world drug producers use when manufacturing drugs come from the same factories in China and South-East Asia. So your brand drug and its generic variation could virtually be produced from the same batch of ingredients coming from the same source.

The low price of generic drugs is another questionable moment that makes many buyers get suspicious. But the reasons here are purely economical. When a large pharmaceutical company develops a new drug it invests millions and even billions of dollars into research, development and marketing. In order to reimburse the costs, big producers set a higher price that allows them to return their investments with some profit. Small producers, on the other hand, do not invest their own money in research or marketing. They just take the formula that was already developed earlier and produce the same drug without the added cost of research, development and marketing. As a result, generic drug manufacturers can set a much lower price on their products in order to gain some profits if compared to large corporations that have to reimburse their initial costs.

But in the end, it's up to you to decide whether to buy generic Cialis or take the branded variation. You know the reasons behind the difference in price, so it's your own decision to make when ordering drugs online or buying from your local pharmacy.