About GPhA

What Is a Generic Medicine?

With every prescription that you have filled with a generic, you get the same medicine as the brand, with the same quality and same result, but at a much lower cost.

For more than 25 years, America’s generic pharmaceutical industry has been providing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved generic versions of brand medicines at a savings to consumers of 30% to as much as 80%. By asking your doctor or pharmacist if there is a generic version of your prescription, you can reduce your health care costs while receiving the same quality of care.

Millions of Americans are using generics to treat a variety of medical conditions, including infection, heart disease and cancer. Generics are rigorously tested by the FDA and must prove that they are the same medicine with the same active ingredient, strength and dosage as their brand-name counterpart. Today, there are thousands of generic drugs available and all are manufactured and inspected under the same strict quality guidelines as a brand.

Experts Agree -- Generics Offer Same Safety and Effectiveness

According to the FDA:

• “[G]eneric drugs…are just as safe and just as effective as their brand-name counterparts, and they are a cost effective way of achieving substantial savings.”
• “[A] generic drug is identical or bioequivalent to a brand-name drug in dosage form, safety, strength, route of administration, quality, performance characteristics and intended use.”
• According to the American Medical Association (AMA):
• “[O]ne of the primary ways physicians can practice cost-effective prescribing is by offering patients a generic medicine when one is available.”

According to the managing editor of Best Buy Drugs, sponsored by Consumer Reports:

"Switching to generic whenever possible is, quite simply, one of the clearest paths to reducing health care spending in the years ahead."