Understanding the Cost Difference of Branded and GENERIC MEDICINES

Despite being dubbed as the ‘Pharmacy of the World’, the grassroot situation for India is rather grim. The population struggles to access medicines for common chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, renal, and gastric issues. Medicines account for up to 90% of healthcare spending and a substantial portion of out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses. Many even have to take loans to bear the cost.

The government of India spends nearly 3% of its GDP on healthcare. India has a mixed-economy wherein both the government and private players provide some degree of healthcare to the populace. While the public healthcare system is plagued with quality and accessibility concerns, the private system is marred by high costs. Therefore, people need to know the options they have in terms of getting quality generic medicines because knowledge can promote high quality treatment at affordable cost.

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”. Hence, generics can be marketed under a non-proprietary name or as a branded generic. This enables the marketer to market the product in a way similar to the proprietary product.

Branded generics are sold at roughly 10-20 times the manufacturing cost due to costs associated with getting doctors to prescribe that particular brand. The doctor could also prescribe non branded-generic medicine which would be the name of a salt, but they wouldn’t get any incentive to do so.

This practice has been reprimanded by the government, but the doctor association (IMA) simply does not accept it. The common man bears the burden of high medicine costs, due to the practices of doctors and pharmaceutical marketers. Alternatively, consumers could purchase trade-generics which do  not go through the pharma-doctor nexus and are up to 90% cheaper than branded generics. However, many do not trust these medicines as they do not have a doctor’s authority behind them.

To provide trustworthy trade-generics, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana (PMBJP) was introduced. The scheme provides generic medicines at really affordable rates through Jan Aushadhi Kendras. 11,000+ Jan Aushadhi Kendras are currently operational. Although the scheme is successful in curing the problem of affordability, the age-old problem in government of quality and accessibility are ever present.

To solve the three major problems of Affordability, Accessibility, and Quality in the Pharmaceutical industry, SayaCare comes into play. We provide simple and bold solutions. Our mission is to provide Affordable Medicines at Your Doorsteps with Quality Assurance. Read more about SayaCare

COST COMPARISON: SAYACARE, GENERIC AND BRANDED MEDICINES 

METHOD: To conduct a comparative study on prices, the top 50 purchased drugs from SayaCare and their respective highest priced branded counterparts were taken into consideration. The mean of all the prices available for branded and SayaCare’s medicines was calculated, and the percentage difference in the mean costs of generic and branded medicines was calculated.

Here brand name meds are either patented drugs or medicines marketed by big pharma companies. Generic medicines are medicines marketed by small players who copy the formulation from.

RESULT

BRANDED AND GENERIC

Biggest price difference: Rs 2552 

Smallest price difference: Rs 0.96 

Average price difference: Rs 147

Of the 50 medicines, 27 (54%) branded and generic medicines have up to 40% price difference. About 18 (36%) medicines have around 80% price difference and  5 (10%) medicines have a price difference of more than 80%.

43 (86%) branded medicines are costlier than their generic counterparts, and the rest 7 (14%) are slightly cheaper than generic drugs. The mean cost of generic drugs is Rs 100 while that of branded medicines is Rs 247.

BRANDED AND SAYACARE

Biggest price difference: Rs 2595 

Smallest price difference: Rs 14.6 

Average price difference: Rs 219.46

Of the 50 medicines, none of the SayaCare and branded medicines have a 0-40% difference in their cost. About 17 (34%) has a difference of 40-80%, and the remaining 33 (66%) SayaCare and Branded medicines have a price difference of more than 80%.

All 50 (100%) Branded medicines are costlier than their SayaCare counterparts. The mean cost of SayaCare drugs turned out to be Rs 27.6, significantly less than brand name medicines which had a mean cost of Rs 247.

CONCLUSION

Brand name medicines cost a fortune, preventing the poor from receiving adequate healthcare support. On the other hand, generics eliminate the gap between the poor and the rich by allowing them to easily access medicines without worrying about their finances. And SayaCare takes this to another level.

1. On average, you save around 80%-90% when purchasing from SayaCare as opposed to branded medicines stores.
2. On average, you save around 50%-70% when purchasing from SayaCare as opposed to generic stores/ e-pharmacies.
3. SayaCare and Jan Aushadhi medicines have hardly any difference in price.
4. SayaCare gets all its generic medicines double-tested from a government-authorised third-party laboratory for quality assurance, making it more reliable.