In India and elsewhere in the world, access to cheap medicines continues to be a critical issue faced in public health. Treatment itself comes at a high price, and patients, in their struggle to afford it, would opt to neglect medication and subsequent care, hence, increasing the disease burden. In such a backdrop, generic drugs present a powerful remedy to address healthcare inequities while ensuring quality and safety.
What Are Generic Medicines?
A generic drug is a pharmaceutical product, usually intended to be interchangeable with an innovator product, that is manufactured without a licence from the innovator company and marketed after the expiry date of the patent or other exclusivity rights. Regulatory authorities permit generics to be administered on the market only when conclusive art bioequivalence studies have been satisfactorily executed, showing similar therapeutic performance with significant cost reduction. These drugs usually enter the market following expiration of the patent of the branded drug enabling mass production and affordable sale.
Why Are Generic Drugs More Affordable?
Compared to generic drugs, branded drugs are generally costly because they are expensive to research, develop, and promote. Generic manufacturers replicate the proven medicinal formulation, unlike their branded counterparts; therefore, they evade initial investment costs for research and development. This is the key to their generation of prices that plummet up to 80-90% less than the branded counterparts but do retain their quality. In India, more than 70% of the domestic pharmaceutical market comprises generics, reflecting widespread acceptance of these affordable alternatives.
Impact on Public Health Outcomes
Availability of low-priced generics hits directly in the pocket with public health:
● Improved Medication Adherence: Cost is the single most important barrier that has prevented patients from completing treatment regimens for chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Generics therefore make life-time therapies feasible.
● Reduced Out-of-Pocket Expenditure: Over 60% of total health expenditure in India is out-of-pocket. Cheap medicines save the families from catastrophic health expenses and medical debts.
The Role of Generic Medicines in democratizing medicine
Generic medicines entering the market solve problems of non-adherence due to high medicine prices from a public health viewpoint. WHO estimates indicate that about half of those considered to be chronically ill in developing countries fail to take their medications strictly according to the prescription because of financial constraints. Globally, the generic drug market is valued at USD 468 billion in 2025, expected to expand to USD 728.6 billion by 2034 (CAGR ~5.0%)
In managing emergencies from a public health point of view, generic drugs have another important profile. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, generic manufacturers in India kept essential medicines continuously produced and supplied, thus bolstering India’s well-deserved title as the “pharmacy of the world. India supplies approximately 20% of the world’s generic drugs by volume, cementing its status as the ‘pharmacy of the world’
Quality Assurance: Breaking the Myth
One of the myths kept alive is that generic medicines are inferior to branded drugs. However, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) makes sure that generics are tested for parameters such as bioequivalence, pharmacokinetics, and manufacturing standards. So do foreign agencies like the US FDA. The differences are in the labeling, packaging, and marketing strategies-again, not in the efficacy or safety.
Challenges and Way Forward
Generics still face some barriers, even though:
● Lack of Awareness: Many patients are unaware of possible generic counterparts, or they take the lower price to mean inferior quality.
● Prescriber Preferences: Some physicians still favor branded prescriptions because of marketing and perceived reliability.
● Regulatory Watch: Quality control must be maintained without the latter term.
To overcome these challenges, there is a need for a strong awareness generation programme, compulsory generic prescription, and strict implementation of quality standards.
Conclusion
All the same, affordable drugs are necessary for the health of a nation. Through the provision of the same therapeutic value at lower cost, generic drugs increase access to treatment, improve population health, and reduce financial burden on families. As India moves towards Universal Health Coverage, strengthening the generic drug ecosystem through policy, public awareness, will ensure that quality medicines remain within everyone’s reach; not just a privileged few.
(The author, Dr. Sujit Paul, is the Group CEO at Zota Healthcare Ltd.)
