An analytical study comparing cost and quality of generics with branded drugs

There is a long debate in india on whether generic drugs are as effective and safe as the branded drug. A generic drug is identical to a brand name drug in intended use, dosage, strength, effectiveness and safety. An experimental study was conducted on generic and branded drugs by using qualitative and quantitative analysis, and also cost benefit analysis was done to access the price differences in local region. Main aim of the study was to compare the quality and price of generic drug products to their branded products manufactured by the same pharmaceutical company in India. Price-to-patient and price-to-retailers have to be found for branded and generic medicines. Qualitative and quantitative analysis was performed by using various analytical techniques prescribed in the Indian Pharmacopoeia 2018. Results shown that Quality of generic drugs was same as that of branded drugs and having no significant variations. Difference in price-to-patient was not as huge as it is expected for generics but margins for retailer were very high (25-65%) for generic drugs than that of branded drugs. Hence it was seen that generic substitution can be done for specific drugs and also pharmacoeconomic burden can also be reduced for patients.