Well to start with, generic medicines are pharmaceutical drugs that has same chemical composition as the medicines which were earlier protected by chemical patents.
But that is the definition which you can get easily on Google, what does it actually mean??
To understand the actual meaning of generic medicine, and where they come from, we must first understand how the branded medicines are made or launched. Them only we can understand why generic medicines are so cheap.
See, all the pharma companies spend loads and loads of money on research work. A huge amount is invested to insure that the medicine is safe for human use. Lots of trials are conducted, sometimes the medicine pass all the safety criteria, as well as is effective, but many times the formula will either not be safe or not be effective for human ise. Under such circumstances all the money which was spent on it gets wasted. Therefore the pharma companies when they develope a medicine gets a chemical patent of it, so only they can sell the chemical formula in form of pharmaceutical drug. They choose price in accordance to amount of money they invested on it. It includes careful calculation of demand of that particular drug, as well as money required to make it. Mostly that is the reason why drugs for rare diseases are hard to find, cause first, they are hard to study on, second due to their less demand, the companies have to extract almost all the money from small amount of population buying it.
But after some time patent expires, right now a patent expires after 20 years of patent filing. Now several companies use the same chemical composition to make the same drug, since they don't have to do any research work, neither is there any chance of failure, the cost of making that particular medicine is heavily reduced. So even though these companies are making huge profit out of selling generic medicine, these medicines are still cheaper then the branded one.
Now the major question, are they effective and safe?
Yes!! Since these medicines have exactly the same chemical composition as that of the branded one, and since the have to pass same set of safety criteria, they are absolutely effective as well as safe.
They are an exact photocopy of the branded medicines, so there is no comparison between them, it is completely safe as well as ethical to use these medicine.
Now you might think that in this way the pharmaceutical companies will ne at lost, well no, they are not losing anything, they earned a lot by selling those medicine protected under the patent right for 20 years, and they can still continue selling them, at the same price. And there will always be that rich section of society who will buy these branded medicines just so that they can show off. Every family has this relative, who don't belive in generic medicine, and inly use branded products . But next time you are at a medical shop, you know exactly what you have to buy.But after some time patent expires, right now a patent expires after 20 years of patent filing. Now several companies use the same chemical composition to make the same drug, since they don't have to do any research work, neither is there any chance of failure, the cost of making that particular medicine is heavily reduced. So even though these companies are making huge profit out of selling generic medicine, these medicines are still cheaper then the branded one.
Now the major question, are they effective and safe?
Yes!! Since these medicines have exactly the same chemical composition as that of the branded one, and since the have to pass same set of safety criteria, they are absolutely effective as well as safe.
They are an exact photocopy of the branded medicines, so there is no comparison between them, it is completely safe as well as ethical to use these medicine.
Now you might think that in this way the pharmaceutical companies will ne at lost, well no, they are not losing anything, they earned a lot by selling those medicine protected under the patent right for 20 years, and they can still continue selling them, at the same price. And there will always be that rich section of society who will buy these branded medicines just so that they can show off. Every family has this relative, who don't belive in generic medicine, and inly use branded products . But next time you are at a medical shop, you know exactly what you have to buy.

Thanks for your time
Aarshira sharma