Brand name drugs

[swak]

Do you choose brand name (Tylenol, advil, etc.) drugs over generic name brands (Life, Local drug mart barnd, etc.).

Reason i ask is i just bought a no name tylenol like brand (with 50 tablets) for $4.40, and have been buying this no name brand for 2 years now, and its worked as well, if not better than tylenol and the brand name drugs.

These brand name drugs go for twice the price, with half the tablets.
WTF?!??!!
Is this all marketing that they can sell for more than twice as much?

What do you shop for?
And why?

[A790]

Originally posted by swak
Do you choose brand name (Tylenol, advil, etc.) drugs over generic name brands (Life, Local drug mart barnd, etc.).

Reason i ask is i just bought a no name tylenol like brand (with 50 tablets) for $4.40, and have been buying this no name brand for 2 years now, and its worked as well, if not better than tylenol and the brand name drugs.

These brand name drugs go for twice the price, with half the tablets.
WTF?!??!!
Is this all marketing that they can sell for more than twice as much?

What do you shop for?
And why?

Brand name meds are like anything else: big business. They want you to associate headache relief with Tylenol, as opposed to the generic substance it's made from. Marketing works, man.

[badatusrnames]

This really doesn't change, regardless of the label on the bottle:

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by A790

Brand name meds are like anything else: big business. They want you to associate headache relief with Tylenol, as opposed to the generic substance it's made from. Marketing works, man.

as long as the no-name brand has the same chemical componets of ex Tylenol, it all works the same and your just paying for the brand if u get Tylenol. Just like the case, I strained my back a few weeks back and was looking for pain relief, it was between $12 Robaxacet (18 pills) or Kirkland brand Extra Strength Back/Muscle Pain Relief $5.99 for 40 pills, so for drugs, just pick the no-name brand.


But this thinking does not apply to other products such as cologne, or laundry detergent or certain foods.

[UndrgroundRider]

Originally posted by badatusrnames
This really doesn't change, regardless of the label on the bottle:

Partially true. The non-medical ingredients play a large roll in the delivery and bioavailability of a drug. There is quite a bit of variability between generic and brand name drugs in this regard. Usually the real-world difference is negligable, but not always. For example, ibuprofen (advil) is readily available under generic labels, but advil liquid gels use a patented process of delivering the drug and are not available in generic form.

[swak]

Originally posted by dj_rice

But this thinking does not apply to other products such as cologne, or laundry detergent or certain foods.

Agree 100%.

[Weapon_R]

Do you actually think that Shopper's Drug Mart has a separate drug manufacturing warehouse, along with every other "Life" product?

They buy them from the major manufacturers and brand them under the Life brand. They are as good as any brand name medicine. The difference in price is just the the money spent on marketing and image.

[gqmw]

I've almost always bought the brand name ones, but I wouldn't have a problem with taking the other "non-brand name" products. The stuff inside definitely is the same most of the time.

It has just been a habit to pick out the brand name ones...and I don't take any drugs on a regular basis, it's very rare that I even take Tylenol so it's not a big deal in price difference for me though.

[G-ZUS]

Originally posted by Weapon_R
Do you actually think that Shopper's Drug Mart has a separate drug manufacturing warehouse, along with every other "Life" product?

They buy them from the major manufacturers and brand them under the Life brand. They are as good as any brand name medicine. The difference in price is just the the money spent on marketing and image.

I used to be a Pharmacy tech and it's all the same shit, just different trade(brand) name

[Thomas Gabriel]

Regarding prescription drugs, it has been shown that some proprietary time-release mechanisms on brand name drugs deliver a substantially better pharmacokinetic profile.

[RX_EVOLV]

If the drug is off patent ( ie Advil, Tylenol, Claritiin etc), the brand name and generic counter-part are EXACTLY the same, produced under the same rigorous GMP setting.

There is no point buying brand name stuff if you can get generic (ie safeway/shoppers brand, etc)


The reason is that it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to discover and develop a drug (to show that it is clinically safe), but once you have the formulation, it cost very little to actually make the drug itself. That's why as soon as the drug is off patent, any generic drug manufacturer can just take the recipe and make it themselves (in a GMP facility),and thats why brand-name drugs are so expensive. They need to re-cover the millions of dollars with 5-7 years before it becomes worthless.

Statistically it had been shown that large pharmaceutical companies also INCREASE the price of their drugs after they come off patent to give the product a false sense of superiority when placed next to its generic counter-part ( although they still lose over 90% of the market share the moment the drug comes off patent)