Real medicine

When Laxman was injured during the battle against Ravana, Lord Rama was informed that the Sanjeevani herb from the Himalayas could cure him. Lord Hanuman could not find the herb, so after fighting off Kalanemi, who had been sent by Ravana, he famously brought the whole mountain. Had Ravana changed his strategy and planted a poisonous/do-nothing look-alike herb in a visible place, then Hanuman and Laxman would be no different from the millions of Indians today who purchase/consume fake/substandard/adulterated medication.  

Generic medicines

Generic medicines are cheap because they copy the research of the branded/patent medicines. These are the original innovator drugs – wherein large companies spent years in research to discover and test salts. However, many copies of the original branded medicine exist, and in order for companies to differentiate their product from others they began giving them a proprietary name, making them a “brand”.