Brand Name vs. Generic Medicines: All Your Questions, Answered 

Every drug has a generic name approved. If it is manufactured by different companies, each will also provide the medicine with a unique brand or trade name. Thus a drug can have a generic name and may be several brand names.  Which can sometimes result in confusion?

What are generic and brand names?

Generic name. Every drug has a recognised & approved name called the generic name. A group of drugs that have equivalent actions frequently have similar sound generic names. For example, ampicillin, amoxicillin, flucloxacillin and phenoxymethylpenicillin are in a group of antibiotics.

Brand or trade name. Many drugs also have more than one brand names, which is picked by the company that manufactures it. Different companies can produce the same generic medicine, each with its own brand. The name is often picked to be memorable for marketing or to be easier to point out that the generic name. Such as, paracetamol is a generic name. There are some companies that manufacture this with brands like Calpol®, Panadol®, etc.

The brand or trade name is generally more clearly written on any drug packaging. However, you can always see its generic name printed somewhere on the package (mostly in small print). Some drugs have only the generic name on the package.

The size, colour, shape, etc., of brands of the same drug, may differ depending on the company that manufactures it. Do not be startled if your regular medication seems to have different shape or colour. This may be the pharmacist is getting it from a different company, or the doctor wrote the generic medicine rather than brand name in your prescription. 

Combination products

Some pills or tablets include a combination of many medicines. Often the combination products are marketed and sold under a brand (trade) name. However, the individual ingredients (that individual drugs are combined in a pill or tablet) will all be written in small print on the package. For example, a popular painkiller that comes with a brand name Solpadol® also contains two generic medicines i.e. codeine and paracetamol. 

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