Branded medication is a rip off!

[EveryDayIsADuvetDay]

I think I have a cold, I don't usually bother, but decided to but some day and night tablets to shift it quickly.
Looked online - brand leaders were £7-£8 in boots/super drug etc, and their own brands about half that.
I decided to look in Tesco because it was closer - £1.75, exactly the same active ingredients.

People must be crazy to spend three to four tines as much for the branded ones! (and TBH I'd probably have got much the same effect from paracetamol)

YABU - you get what you pay for, stick to the brand leaders
YANBU - save cash and go for the supermarket clones

we buy branded for specific formulations (i.e. soluble tablets for the dc).
those are often not available as generic medicines. because they ate still in patent or they are not profitable or more expensive to make.

@Couchbettato that is such an interesting point you have made there, my DS is dyslexic too and he has a medication prescribed that I can only take his prescription to a chemist that supplies the branded medication, our regular chemist only supplies a generic version, which is the same stuff of course, but he says it’s not the same, not amount of persuasion will convince him.

@Nacreous

*I had a patient call up in a tizz the other day saying she had been prescribed the wrong contraceptive pill, had to get her to read out the drug names and amounts and explain about brand names. I mean, she was quite young so fair enough if you don't know this, especially as GPs often prescribe by brand.*

I am usually totally pro switching brands out for generics or other cheaper brands but my preparedness for that torrent extend to contraceptive pills.

I was asked to switch to rigevidon from microgynon. The active ingredients were identical so I agreed. I then went through several months of spotting, investigations for the spotting etc etc until eventually I asked to be put back on microgynon and the whole thing went away. I had been on it for a decade before and have for another 7 years since and never had spotting.

I assume it is something in the coating or the cocrystals impacting absorption but obviously I thought it was just me and something wrong with me because the active ingredients were the same so how could it be doing something different?!

That's interesting, thanks. I'll keep an eye out for that. You may be right about coatings etc.

Generic products only have to prove they are bioequivalent which can be more or less by a certain percentage. So they do studies in anything as low as 30 people to show that the same amount of drug, within a range, appears in their blood stream.
Some generics don't work as well as the fillers and coatings in drugs can make a difference. For instance the brand name might have a slow coating that means it is released slower and more evenly which could result in different effects or less side effects for example.

I agree with anything over the counter.

They swapped my ADHD meds to the "exact same drug" a year ago and I nearly had a car accident as I result! I took them as usual at 7am and by 8 I suddenly felt drunk and had to stop on the motorway to get help! The doctor made me take them for a week before swapping them back. Completely fine once on my old ones again.

I wonder what caused such a weird reaction?!

I voted YABU due to epilepsy medication. It's rarely vital for several of these medications that they stay constant.

There's information on it here

*really not rarely.

canestan thrush treatment is the worse for this, it's insane. I buy a non canestan branded one from my local chemist. the tablet is about £3, the cream the same.

Occasionally they don't have it and I have to buy canestan who want £15-£18 for anything with their name on it! I find that a ridiculous markup when the ingredients and dosage are identical.

Unbranded generics are not always the same as branded - and it applies to Prescription Only Medication as well.

My father had his glaucoma under control using branded eyedrops on repeat prescription (originally prescribed by hospital eye specialist). A couple of years on, the GP did a cost saving exercise and changed it to a generic. Father then suffered a couple of bouts of conjunctivitis for which he received a second lot of eye drop medication from GP. Pressure in his eyes then started to increase and I went with him to the hospital eye specialist to talk about options including possible surgery. When the specialist discovered the medications he was using he went balistic. The generic glaucoma medication had a side effect of causing conjunctivitis, and the conjunctivitis medication had a side effect of causing/worsening glaucoma - he showed me in the BNF book. Neither the GP nor the pharmacist had picked this up. After two weeks with no medication, he restarted on the branded eye-drops and the glaucoma was back under control and no more conjunctivitis. The specialist said the branded drops used a different preservative to the generic and was less likely to cause problems.

@Frickssake

Sorry to slightly de rail the thread. BUT why is threadworm medication SO expensive? When DD was in nursery we all had to take the medication and I couldn't see an alternative to ( OVEX?)

I want to know exactly the same thing.. they are extortionate especially as you have to buy 2 doses per person

I want to know exactly the same thing.. they are extortionate especially as you have to buy 2 doses per person

Can you not get it through the minor ailments scheme? My pharmacy insisted on it despite me wanting to just pay for it!

I'm allergic to one ingredient in almost every generic cold drug. Only one I can take is day nurse at £7 a packet! I wish I could take generic medicines. Consequently I soldier on until I feel like I'm dying (luckily haven't had a bad cold for a couple of years!).

@Senojeel77

I'm allergic to one ingredient in almost every generic cold drug. Only one I can take is day nurse at £7 a packet! I wish I could take generic medicines. Consequently I soldier on until I feel like I'm dying (luckily haven't had a bad cold for a couple of years!).

Same I can only take night nurse night time get hives with everything else

How do you find out which brands do a smaller ( but same dose) tablets? My prescription is for Naproxen but the tablets are so big, I have to break them into three to be able to take them. ( V little strength in my arms so struggle to do this). I'm sure I remember at some point ( a while ago ) getting some easier to swallow ones. Would my new chemist be able to see what brands I have had in the past and do I ask my chemist or doctor for the smaller ones )

I only buy branded if I’m desperate and there’s nothing else available. It’s a total rip off especially the ones that claim to be specifically for period pain or whatever, they can’t target specific pain like that and have the same ingredient as bogstandard painkillers.

Boots sell their own brand threadworm tablets, exactly the same active ingredient as ovex. They are still expensive, but a bit cheaper than ovex.