Special Health Care For Men Report – What are Generic Drugs?

When a company develops a new drug, it gives the drug two names, the generic name which is the name of the chemical compound that makes up the drug and the brand name, which is what the manufacturer calls the product.

The company patents the drug for 20 years giving them the exclusive and legal right to manufacture and market the drug. Once the patent expires, the drug may be manufactured and sold by other companies under a different brand name or under its generic (chemical compound) brand name.

There is no difference between the manufacturing standards set for generic pharmaceutical companies and those set for brand pharmaceutical companies. Sometimes the generic version of a drug may have a different colour or different shape from its brand name counterpart. These differences have no effect on the medical action of the drug. They are created simply to distinguish the appearance of one drug from another. Generic drugs typically are less expensive than their brand name counterparts.

Viagra for example is a product name and Sildenafil Citrate is the generic name. Again Cialis is a product name and Tadalafil is the generic name.