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Generic Medicines
A generic medicine is an equivalent of an originator/ “branded” pharmaceutical product and contains the same
active medicinal substance as an originator pharmaceutical product. It provides the same quality, safety and
efficacy as the original brand name product and undergoes the same strict standard scrutiny as original pharmaceutical
products before it is licensed and given market approval by the international or national medicines authorities. Because
it acts in the same way in the human body, it is interchangeable with the originator product.
Generic drugs can save patients, governments and insurance companies substantial costs. When generic products become
available in the market, it often leads to substantially lower prices for both the original brand name product and the
generic forms. The principal reason for the relatively low price of generic medicines is that competition increases among
producers when drugs no longer are protected by patents. Generic manufacturers incur fewer costs in creating the generic drug,
and are therefore able to maintain profitability at a lower cost to consumers.
Generics are typically 20% to 90% less expensive than the brand-name original. They are hence even widely used in many western
countries in cost-effective treatment programmes, and are increasingly prescribed by doctors as effective alternatives to
higher-priced originator pharmaceuticals.
In an era when increasing demands are being made on national healthcare services, generic medicines provide a major benefit to
society by ensuring patient access to quality, safe and effective medicines while reducing the cost of pharmaceutical care.
These cost savings help provide national healthcare systems with the budget headroom needed to deliver more expensive medical
treatments and services that patients often need.
Ageing populations and rapidly rising treatment costs are causing governments throughout the world to look again at the
sustainability of their healthcare provision. Increasing the availability and range of economically priced generic medicines
provide a cost-effective means of controlling the fastest growing budget item in Botswana’s healthcare; pharmaceuticals.
