Do you buy name brand medicine? poll discussion

Former_MSE_Lawrence

Poll between 16-23 Feb 2009:

Do you buy name brand medicine?

Branded medicine has a powerful selling point: nobody wants to ‘scrimp’ on their health. Yet cheaper generic medicines (unbranded/own brand) offer EXACTLY the same active ingredients (see the cheap medicines guide for more). Often the only difference is the lack of fancy packaging, and the coating.

Which of these do you mostly buy for yourself/your family?

A. Name Brand Medicines - [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]13% (959 votes)[/FONT]
B. Own brand for me, name brand for the kids. - [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]8% (565 votes)[/FONT]
C. Supermarket/Chemist Own Brand - [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]55% (3934 votes)[/FONT]
D. Uber-cheap unbranded. - [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]17% (1226 votes)[/FONT]
E. I get free prescriptions (so there’s no price difference) - [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]6% (453 votes)[/FONT]

Voting has now closed, but you can still click 'post reply' to discuss below. Thanks

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I'm_With_Stupid

Always the own brand ones, because they're usually the cheapest where I'm buying them.

mazza111

Own brand when it comes to the adults in the house.

Only brand name paracetamol for the wee ones when they were little, they just didn't like the taste of the non branded ones!

esuhl

What amazes me is that the NHS pay for branded drugs!

Of course, I'm sure it's of some comfort to those who have been refused critical drugs that the rest of us have pretty boxes with brand names on, as they are left to die because their drugs are too costly.

mcspanna

I get free prescriptions but, unless I'm missing something, I still have to pay for cough/cold remedies and general painkillers for the medicine cupboard etc which are usually ownbrand.

fezer

Own brand for me, but the kids branded purely as they are formulated with better tasting flavourings. I know it is the same active ingredient in there for them but with kids and medicines its a taste thing and they like it, the cheaper ones don't have such a good taste so a waste of money if they wont have them.

Gemmzie

Cheapest generic for me. Got quite a bargain today by doing that actually, saved £10 on one item!

iluvjohnsarg

Generics every time!

worried_jim

D. Uber-cheap unbranded. its all the same. usually stock when abroad in cheaper country, always buy anti biotics as are cheaper than prescription charge.

welsh_cake

Own brand, but live in Wales so get free prescriptions, but wouldn't go to the doc for cough medicine or anything - i always buy that.

kittykitten

Uber-cheap unbranded for me, or else supermarket own brand. I never buy branded medicines, it's just not worth it!
I also get free prescriptions but end up buying cold remedies etc as it's just not worth the hassle of going to the docs for them.

Incidentally the NHS do buy some branded meds, as already pointed out, but it's usually because either A: it's a new-to-market med that is still under licence so is only made by one of the big pharmeceutical companies (new meds usually have a sort of patent licence thingy on them that lasts for a certain length of time so that the original maker can recoup the cost of researching and designing the med before it can be made by anyone else, then once the licence expires everyone starts making it!) or B: they've got it at a bulk-buy discount that actually makes it cheaper to the NHS that non-branded stuff. I did once query this with my local hospital pharmacy as the epilepsy med they gave me was an expensive-looking branded one, but was told this is the reason - the manufacturer offers it at a huge discount to the NHS compared to the cost they charge independent pharmacies!

Trust me - I work for the NHS, and unless they're getting it at huge discount they won't pay for anything branded. We can't even have BIC biros, instead the only ones we can order through our NHS trust purchasing site are the cheap, rubbish pens!