In a survey of commercially insured adults regarding their perceptions of generic drugs, Shrank and associates (2009: 546) reported that,
Insurers and policymakers encourage the use of generic drugs to reduce costs, but generics remain underused. We conducted a national survey of commercially insured adults to evaluate their perceptions about generic drugs...although 56 percent reported that Americans should use more generics, only 37.6 percent prefer to take generics.
The under-usage of generic medication is indeed an unfortunate finding because the wisest course of action for the average person in these difficult economic times is to purchase generic drugs rather than brand-name drugs. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature supporting this claim.
Several reasons support the notion that purchasing generic drugs is preferable to purchasing brand-name drugs. First, all generic drugs are approved drugs, which is to say they have been inspected and found to be safe and effective by the United States Food and Drug Administration (Trogan, 2005: 355-368). Thus, the consumer does not have to worry as to whether they are fully safe for use.
Second, the active ingredients in generic drugs are of the same quality, strength, purity, and stability as the brand-name medications; and the generic drugs take no longer to work in the body than the brand-name medications (Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, 2007: 255-256). Indeed, the one difference between brand name and generic tends to be that they appear different to the eye (e.g., one might be a capsule and the other a tablet) and are packaged differently (Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, 2007: 255-256).
Third, generic drugs cost much less than their brand-name counterparts (Shrank & associates, 2009: 546-556). In this regard, Rizzo and Zechkhauser (2009: 1) have discussed the costs of generic and brand-name drugs, noti...