A brand name drug spends a huge amount of money in the preproduction activities and also in postproduction activities like promotion and marketing. Guess who they will collect their invested amount from. It’s definitely from you, the consumers. And as the preproduction and postproduction costs are around seven to nine times more than the original production cost of the drug, the consumer has to pay a price that is seven to nine times higher than the same.

Is it really possible to maintain the same quality while charging a much lower price? Yes, of course. Generic drugs are the best examples of this type. As a generic drug is just a replica of a brand name, its manufacturers don’t need to indulge in any kind of research and development. They just get the ready-made proven formula of their brand name counterpart and produce the drug following the same. And as the brand name has already publicized the name, generic drugs manufacturers refrain themselves from getting into promotion and hence restricting themselves from investing more than production cost of the drug.


Low investment implies to low selling price. Curtailing all the preproduction (Research and development) and postproduction (Promotion and marketing) costs, generic drugs cost 70% to 90% less than their brand name counterparts.