Some Characteristics of Generic Drugs

An attorney with more than 25 years of federal courtroom experience, William Bryan Farney focuses on patent law and litigation. William Bryan Farney has dealt with a number of different kinds of patent matters, including those involving generic pharmaceuticals.

When a brand name drug is covered by patents, which typically is the case, generic companies can file for FDA approval, and choose to certify that they will wait to enter the market until the brand's patents expire, or, instead, that they seek to enter the market immediately, on grounds that the brand's patents are not infringed or are invalid. The generic medications generally will have the same active ingredients as the brand name drug in order to receive approval from the FDA. The active ingredients have already been proven effective and safe. So the companies producing the generic products do not need to fund similar testing to the brand name drug manufacturer. This also means that the generic medications cost much less money.

For consumers, lower costs are among the main benefits of using generic drugs. Because their health benefits are equivalent to those of brand name varieties, they are much more cost effective to use. In connection to this, patients who start on generic medications are much less likely to eventually abandon them than patients who start on brand name drugs.