A Comparative Study of Branded and Generic Drugs: Cost Analysis in Indian Scenario

Rising medicine costs adversely affects the access to healthcare and the economic status of households. Branded medicines are priced significantly higher than their generic equivalents (identical therapeutic value), even after the patent expiry. With governments pushing for greater adoption of generics, price remains the critical factor. Objective: To understand the status of research into the ‘Pharmacoeconomics’ of generic medicine and test the fundamental premise of unbranded generic drugs being cheaper than branded drugs by conducting a comprehensive cost analysis in the Indian situation. Methods: A qualitative analysis of the top-cited Scopus-indexed research papers published since Covid 19 (2020) has been carried, to understand the status of research into the ‘Pharmacoeconomics’ of generics, using VOSviewer (version 1.6.10). Quantitative cost analysis of branded drugs against their ‘cost-effective’ unbranded counterparts (generics) has been performed using current prices of drugs (solo-formulations) across the top 5 therapeutic categories. Results: The bibliometric analysis indicates a strong positive association between volume of research and the adoption of generic medicine in a country. Though the fundamental premise of unbranded generic drugs being cheaper has been validated by and large, the possibility of it being vitiated is not ruled out. Highest cost variation was found in cardiology, respiratory and anti-diabetic segments. Conclusions: India needs to increase its research and cross linkages in the domain of generic medicine to increase awareness and thereby adoption of generic medicine. Special attention needs to be paid on improving the efficiency and quality of local generic manufacturing plants to ensure cost effectiveness of generics.