A medication is a licenced drug taken to cure or reduce symptoms of an illness or medical condition. Medications are generally divided into two groups -- over the counter (OTC) medications, which are available in pharmacies and supermarkets without special restrictions, and prescription only (POM), which must be prescribed by a physician. Most OTC medication is generally considered to be safe enough that most persons will not hurt themselves accidentally by taking it as instructed. However, the precise distinction between OTC and prescription depends on the legal jurisdiction.
Medications are typically produced by pharmaceutical companies and are often patent. Those that are not patented are called generic drugs.
Medical Prescription
A medical prescription is a written order by a medical doctor to a pharmacist for a treatment to be provided to the doctor's patient.
Many brand name drugs have less expense generic drug substitutes that are chemically equivalent. Prescriptions will also contain instructions on whether the doctor will allow the pharmacist to substitute a generic version of the drug. This instruction is communicated in a number of ways.
Generic Drugs
A generic drug is a drug which is bioequivalent to a brand name drug with respect to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, but is normally sold for a lower price. Generic medicines must contain the same active ingredient at the same strength as the "innovator" brand, be bioequivalent, and are required to meet the same pharmacopoeial requirements for the preparation. By extension, therefore, generics are identical in dose, strength, route of administration, safety, efficacy, and intended use.
The principal reason for the reduced cost of generic medicines is that these are manufacturered by smaller pharmaceutical companies which do not invest in research and development into new drugs. The significant research and development costs incurred by the large pharmaceutical companies in bringing a new drug to the market is often cited as the reason for the high cost of new agents - they wish to recover these costs before the patent expires. Generic manufacturers do not incur these costs, with bioequivalence testing and the actual manufacturing process costing relatively little, and are able to charge significantly lower than the "innovator" brand.
Generic drugs can be legally produced for drugs where the patent has expired, for drugs which have never held patents, or in countries where a patent is not in force. The expiration of a patent removes the monopoly of the patent holder on drug sales licensing. It is also becoming popular for the large pharmaceutical companies to preempt the expiry of their patent by producing their own generic product, or licence their own product to be branded by generic companies. Thus, in some cases, the "generic" product is actually the brand product but inside a different box.
via [ RxBlog ]
Top Brand Name Drugs
• Lipitor
• Synthroid
• Norvasc
• Toprol XL
• Zoloft
• Zocor
• Zithromax Z-Pak
• Ambien
• Lexapro
• Prevacid
• Nexium
• Singulair
• Levoxyl
• Celebrex
• Fosamax
• Effexor XR
• Premarin Tabs
• Allegra
• Plavix
• Protonix
• Zyrtec
• Advair Diskus
• Neurontin
• Flonase
• Viagra
• Levaquin
• Pravachol
• Lotrel
• Diovan
• Vioxx
• Altace
• Klor-Con
• Bextra
• Celexa
• Ortho Evra
• Diovan HCT
• Accupril
• Paxil CR
• Actonel
• Actos
• Wellbutrin XL
• Cozaar
• Zetia
• Avandia
• Aciphex
• Zithromax Susp
• Adderall XR
• Concerta
• Flomax
• Risperdal
• Digitek
• Tricor
• Seroquel
• Nasonex
• Clarinex
• Xalatan
• Diflucan
• Coumadin Tabs
• Lantus
• Amaryl
• Hyzaar
• Combivent
• Valtrex
• Crestor
• Ortho Tri-Cyclen
tags: rxblog, pharmaceutical, drugs, rx blog / rxblog
Comments