why do medicine has the same generic name but different brands?

same reason you can by coke, pepsi, or a generic cola drink.

Pharmaceuticals, drugs that serve a medicinal purpose, have to be developed and shown to work by someone. the person or company that develops such a medicine owns that medicine if they register it legally as their own. No one else can make and sell that medicine without their permission, for a specific period of time that depends on local laws.

These companies almost always come up with some brand name for the actual chemical mixture that the medicine is composed of. brand name is a marketing tool, a way to identify a product in a simple to remember name (rather than some complicated organic compound or mixture of organic compounds that most people wouldn't understand or even remember).

Eventually, the patent expires (other people can make and sell the medicine or something very similar). They cannot use the brand name though, since that is owned already. So they call it a generic name, state that is is a medicine containing the organic compounds that the original medicine used.

Generic medicines tend to cost less since they don't have the brand-name identity, and the generic drug manufacturers frequently do not have a lot of research and development overhead to pay for. they simply have cost and profit needs.

The primary active ingredients are almost always the same in a generic as in the brand name original. There are differences in secondary components. These may or may not be important.

Take tylenol as an example. Acetominophen is the active ingredient. tylenol was the only legal product containing acetominophen until the patent expired. Now you can get generic "tylenol", which cannot call itself tylenol, of course. they just call it acetominophen.

that is why. you can buy pepsi, or you can buy cola. You can buy 7-up, or you can buy a lemon-lime soda. medicines work about the same way from a marketing, manufacture, and sales point of view. Generics are simply knock-offs (copies) of an original brand name product.

These days many prescription medicines are available in more than one brand. You may have discovered this when your pharmacist asked you if you would like a cheaper brand than the one the doctor prescribed.

If your doctor or pharmacist gives you a medicine with an unfamiliar name, it is important that you find out if it is a different brand of one of your usual medicines, or a new medicine. Knowing this will help you avoid problems. Unfortunately, sometimes people don’t realise their ‘new’ medicine is simply another brand of their usual medicine, and so take both, therefore taking double the intended dose.

Every prescription medicine has two names: one is the ‘brand name’, the other is the ‘generic name’. Like many things we buy, medicines are usually referred to by their brand names. For example, Prozac is the well known brand name of a medicine for depression, but the generic drug name of the medicine is fluoxetine.

Different brands of a particular medicine share the same generic drug name. For example, ranitidine is the generic name of a medicine for stomach ulcers. However, most people who take ranitidine probably think of it as Zantac, which is the brand name it was given by its original manufacturers.

Nowadays, several other companies also make ranitidine, and each has given it a different brand name. Other brands include Ausran, Rani 2, Ranihexal and Ranoxyl. In addition, some of the big pharmacy Different brands of a particular medicine share the same generic drug name. chains have their own brands of ranitidine, such as Chemmart Ranitidine, healthsense Ranitidine, Terry White Chemists Ranitidine.

Usually, both the generic name and the brand name appear on the label. The generic name appears in brackets below the brand name. To find out if two medicines are the same, look for the generic names on the labels. If the generic names are the same, the medicines are different brands of the same medicine. If the generic names are different, the medicines are not the same. (Also, medicines come in different strengths, so check that the strengths are the same too.)

The first brand of a medicine is often referred to as the ‘original brand’ or ‘premium brand’. Later brands are often referred to as ‘generic brands’.

Generic brands have to meet the same manufacturing quality and safety standards as the original brand. They also have to be tested to show that they work in the same way in the body as the original brand. The advantage of generic brands is that they usually cost less.

Tips

•If you are unsure whether two medicines are the same, ask your pharmacist or doctor.

•Don't rely on what the tablets or capsules, etc look like. Sometimes, different brands of the same medicine look the same, and sometimes they look different (see picture).

•If given a medicine with a new name, ask if you should take it as well as, or instead of one of your usual medicines.

•If possible, stick with one brand, whether it is the original brand or a generic brand. Let your doctor and pharmacist know which brand you prefer.

Okay, so you can read those chapters the other people wrote or you can just understand this:

The generic name is the name of the molecule or drug not a brand name, so multiple companies can make it. Brand names are used by the douches who discovered it first.