Do you buy name brand medicine? poll discussion

salster1

sorry t harp on about things, but also be aware that if you are buying medication over the counter for the elderly or people who get muddled by medicines that if the product comes in a different box then they find it too easy to get mudled as it is unrecogniseable, and cold end up taking the same drug twice.

i have seen many people do this even using prescribed medicines when the chemist has changed the brand used. it can be very dangerous. please be careful everyone.

npw32jnw

Are we not getting a little bit deep on this thread?

Well, I am going to keep it simple! Kids had a nasty chesty cough, so DW decided to get Tesco own brand, because it was much cheaper than the branded equivalent. Got it home and the kids would not go anywhere near it after the first spoonful - I have to say I would have had serious qualms about using it myself - it was disgusting! So we ended up going to the local chemist and buying a brand because we know they will use it - sometimes cheapest is not always money saving.

In terms of prescribed medicines, I am not a doctor or a pharmacist - how do I know what is branded and what is not - I just take whatever the doc tells me to

jumpycheese1

I always buy the cheapest painkillers! 16p for 16 paracetamols from Boots.

I have discovered that Nurofen have different painkillers for migranes, stuff which delivers the relief twice as fast as the others etc. Looking at the ingredients they are all the same! Some people are crazy enough to splash out 80p more for these. The people behind Nurofen are making money out of the people who are too lazy to check the labelling.

In the supermarket where I work, people tend to buy the supermarket brand of painkillers as when I stock the shelves of health and beauty products over the weekend, I am putting out at least 6 cases of shop brand painkillers every time.

jumpycheese1

The chemist in the village will tell us if the prescribed medication is available otc at a cheaper price. My mother was prescribed some cream to soothe the inside of her nose as was inflamed. The otc version was £4.59.

Though sometimes the prescriptions are cheaper than otc versions. Clarityn otc is 7 tablets for about £4.85. The prescription is a month's worth for £7.10. Which do you prefer to spend 69p per tablet or 23p? Or othertimes the otc version contains less active ingredients.

paulme

There is a clear difference between OTC medicines and Prescription only medicines, for OTC medicines many of the branded companies are making profits out of peoples ignorance or laziness as seems to be the consensus here.
Prescription medicines are slightly different in as much as the original brands are covered by patents for a considerable period of time and until these patents have expired there are no generic alternatives.
The patent is granted to branded companies to protect them for a period of time to enable them to gain a return on investment, bringing a new drug onto the market takes many years and the associated costs are astronomical. Once the patent expires generic manufacturers are able to buy the drug dossiers and manufacture them without any of the R&D costs already carried by the Brand, this in turn enables them to produce them for a fraction of the cost.
Without patent protection no one would develop new drugs and we would all suffer as a result.

However once a brand is off patent and a generic is available it is always better to use the generic version (there may be some difference in the non-active ingredients that occasionally will disagree with people but this is very rare). Generic Pharmaceutical companies are governed by the same rules and regulations as branded companies and have the same governing body, the MHRA.
Doctors when prescribing drugs get into the habit of writing the brand name instead of the drug itself, often because it is easier to remember and because they have been prescribing this as the only available option for many years, when a generic alternative becomes available GP's continue to prescribe the brand from habit. New legislation is planned for early next year where a pharmacist can provide the generic alternative where available without recourse to the GP unless the GP has ticked an opt-out box specifying that they must supply the brand. This is expected to save the NHS millions every year.
In the meantime patients can always ask theit GP to prescribe the generic if they prefer.

Poppy9

jumpycheese1 wrote: »

The chemist in the village will tell us if the prescribed medication is available otc at a cheaper price. My mother was prescribed some cream to soothe the inside of her nose as was inflamed. The otc version was £4.59.

Though sometimes the prescriptions are cheaper than otc versions. Clarityn otc is 7 tablets for about £4.85. The prescription is a month's worth for £7.10. Which do you prefer to spend 69p per tablet or 23p? Or othertimes the otc version contains less active ingredients.

Ask the pharmacist for the loratadine which is the generic version of Clarityn and you should get a months supply for about £2. Alternatively look on line for it or in supermarkets. Tesco sell pack of 7 for about 80p but some stores have 30 pack for £2.49. My GP actually specifies "loratadine" on DD prescription so she gets the generic version not the Clarityn she was initially prescribed.

MediSin

teddyco wrote: »

Mindgames,

In the USA, this list of over-the-counter products had to be pulled because they contained a substance that caused the user's brain to hemorrhage resulting in strokes and death.

Bit more alarmist than it needed to be. According to the FDA,

"This study reports that taking PPA increases the risk of hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding into the brain or into tissue surrounding the brain) in women. Men may also be at risk. Although the risk of hemorrhagic stroke is very low, FDA recommends that consumers not use any products that contain PPA."

So, doesn't neccesarily explode your brain... :-)

Back to the original point, I would always go for the generic option if it's the same but cheaper. Can't understand paying for Nurofen when it's about 8 times the price of supermarket ibuprofen even though it's identical. But a lot of people just don't get it. I used to have a stepmother who was a nurse (unbelievably). She once advised me to take "some Nurofen and a couple of ibuprofen" and refused to believe me when I told her Nurofen was just a brand name for ibuprofen. Scary woman.

Regarding the NHS argument, my GP isn't allowed to prescribe anything by the brand name, she has to write the name of the actual drug so that the pharmacy will dispense the generic version if one exists. Think it just depends on which surgery you're registered with.

blue_haddock

Generally i used to buy shop brand stuff for things like paracetamol and cough/cold remediesbut as i now get free prescriptions i just go with whatever the doc prescribes.

I have found recently with one of my medications that the boxes are in what looks to be russian but with a english language sticker added to the box. Now whilst i have no problem with this as long as the actual product is the same i have found the blister packs to be poor quality with the pack splitting and the foil tear off and exposing other tablets in the strip.

SandC

I buy ownbrand as I am very cost conscious. What I had been a little fooled by was indigestion/heartburn remedies. I would automatically reach for Gaviscon as the shelves are full of it. But I spotted some asda own tablets which were exactly the same stuff to my mind and paid less than half for them.

I used to pop out for that sort of stuff for my ex boss. She would insist on Nurofen even though I told her it's only ibuprofen in a fancy box. She would not have any of it.

A lot of you seem to get free prescriptions on here, is this a common thing?

adamsmum

For myself its the cheapest possible but for my son (he has a liver disease) it has to be branded. Bought the cheap childrens paracetamol and thank god I read the leaflet as it said not to be given with a liver disease, calpol does not have the added ingredient and is therefore safe in little doses for my DS. Same goes for cough medicine he still has to take the childrens tixi lix even at 11 as adult ones contain alcohol, and it's not worth the risk to his liver. So I have to buy the branded ones