Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 32
Research at BCAS
Comparative study of the drug performances of Generic &
Branded drugs
(Case study on Penicillin antibiotic family)
By Veroni Amarasinghe
Introduction
Medicines are used with the intention of creating a physiological effect when introduced to
the body in order to treat medical conditions+ Medicines or in other words, drugs are used all
over the world to treat patients who suffer from varies illnesses+ These drugs can be used to
cure or control ill effect of a disease as well to use in medical procedures like anesthesia+
Drugs are found in number of patterns like tablets, capsules, injections, syrups and etc+ The
root of administration also vary according to the type of the drug+
In some medical conditions, a single dose of a particular drug will be enough to completely
cure the ill effect of the disease where in some medical conditions the patient will have to
take medicines for life long+
When a new drug is invented the inventor or the inventing company of the drug usually take
the patent protection for the newly invented drug+ However when the parent expires or when
the generic companies succeed in proving the particular drug is no longer under the protection of patent, the generic drug companies start manufacturing the particular drug+ Some of
the generic drug companies manufacture the drug in their generic names while some generic
companies manufacture the drug in a trade or brand name+ In the pharmaceutical market, the
generic drugs that are manufactured with the generic name are known as ‘Generic drugs’ and
the generic drugs that are manufactured in a trade or brand name are known as ‘Branded
drugs’+
A significant price difference between the generic drugs and the branded drugs can be observed in Sri Lankan pharmaceutical market+ In some drugs,the price difference of generic &
branded drugs are sometimes 1:2, 1:10 or even 1:40 as a ratio+This project was designed to
seekwhether there a difference in the drug performance in these two drug typesconsidering
the price difference among them+
Pharmaceutical market is a growing industry in Sri Lanka, where both the local and foreign
investors have attracted According to the IMS 2011+ The total Sri Lankan pharmaceutical market worth 25 billion rupees (IMS, 2011)+ 70-75* of the Sri Lankan pharmaceutical market belongs to the privet sector and the rest is held by the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC)
and other institutions+ India, Pakistan, Germany, Argentina, United Kingdome, Japan, China and
Thailand are the countries that are mostly involved in the Sri Lankan pharmaceutical market+
The comparative study of the drug performances of the Generic & Branded drugs was done
by using the Penicillin antibiotic familyas antibiotics are one of the most commonly used
drugs and their performances are easily measurable in the laboratory+ Among antibiotics Penicillin family was selected as it is the first antibiotic found but still new drugs are introduced to