Generic Contraceptives Are Cheaper But Are They Safe and Reliable?
If you hand in your prescription for Yaz at the pharmacy and are offered a ‘generic’ alternative such as Janya, how secure do you feel in accepting the cheaper product- after all this is your family planning at stake here, not some hay fever trial!
Often the doctor will indicate on your script that a generic product is optional too, if one is available but what if you wish to buy online for convenience and save a few dollars in the process? I’m not taking a legal or scientific stance here, just explaining simply for the average consumer, what the term ‘generic’ means so that you can confidently make a decision about this option for your contraceptive pill if one is available.
Generic options may not be offered to you for all contraceptives but when they are, they are usually cheaper than the original, patented drug and for an item that can occupy a regular spot on your shopping list for YEARS, those significant dollars you save may well relieve the budget elsewhere.
First, a bit about what a ‘drug’ is…
Any drug that requires a doctor’s prescription is made up of chemical compounds. Compounds are made up of molecules containing atoms that are joined together in various configurations or patterns, depending on the type of compound. When a drug company comes up with a chemical substance they wish to market as a drug, they know the configuration of the atoms in the molecule and that configuration usually dictates what the name of the substance should be.
How is the Janya (or Gianvi®) contraceptive pill classified as being the ‘generic’ equivalent of Yaz/Yasmin?
I reluctantly take a drug to lower my high cholesterol (yes I’ve tried all the other non chemical, detox, diet related solutions in vain!) -its chemical name is atorvastatin which the company Pfizer patented so that no one else could make or sell it for the term of the patent ‘life’. Pfizer called the drug Lipitor, which they registered as a trademark so again, no one else can use this name.
When we use the term, ‘generic’ we are usually talking about an alternative drug that is cheaper than the brand but does the same thing. While the patent is in force, for any particular drug, there will be no generic alternative. You can check the patent expiration date on line for a drug you are interested in. Patents are country specific too so if your drug is not registered in another country, you may find its generic equivalent is available in that country. Costs to develop new contraceptive pills are high and a company that manufactures that same contraceptive pill after a patent expires does not incur these costs so can produce the same contraceptive pill cheaper and therefore sell it on at a lower price than the original. Most of us call these cheaper products ‘generic’ and they are often made by the same company as the patented version.
No doubt you’ve bought ‘generic’ baked beans at your supermarket and been disappointed with the quality, especially if you’re a Heinz fan but when the term ‘generic’ is applied to a drug used in such an important product as a contraceptive pill, ingredients and quality are much more regulated. These medicines ‘do the same job’ in the body as the patented ones do and are required by law to contain ‘comparable’ or identical active ingredients and be functionally equivalent to the original. I believe that the FDA requires the generic brand to fall within 20% of the named brand in relation to its absorption properties. For this reason generics are generally accepted to have exactly the same medicinal or contraceptive effectiveness as the original brand name drug.
Janya (Yasmin/Yaz) for example, contains active compounds -3 mg of drospirenone and 0.02 mg of ethinyl estradiol, however, some generics contain different ‘fillers’ or colours and human bodies being what they are, these may affect women differently from those used in the name brand. One common filler is lactose/milk sugar so if you happen to be lactose intolerant and were on a non lactose BC pill and you unknowingly swap to a generic brand with a lactose filler then its possible that you may experience slight tummy upsets.
Next time you have a prescription to fill, you can confidently speak to your pharmacist (yes, even for on line orders) about generic options that may be available for your contraceptive pill. If you happen to be using Yasmin or Yaz, check out the prices for the generic product, Janya HERE as I believe this supplier has the best on line price and you may get volume discount.
PS. July 2011 update: I am watching for the results of the FDA study of 800,000 women using Yaz to see whether the ingredient ‘drospirenone’ significantly increases the risk of blood clotting.
