The health industry is making huge money, thanks to us. Unless we do not shift ourselves from a bad lifestyle to good, from junk food to a healthy diet and from no fitness to regular exercise this will continue.
These poor habits have increased our dependency on regular intake of medications and other therapies on daily basis to overcome common health conditions. But what a coincidence, unlike your bad habits you do have some bad and fake medication rolling in the healthcare sector.
Such fake medications can only help your health conditions become worse with each passing day. Hence only to save some extra $ do not fall under the trap of fake medication. Now the actual question running at the back of your mind is how to know a fake medicine where I am not an expert.
Well, to clear all the confusion and have a basic knowledge about medicaments, thanks and keep reading.
Let’s start with brand medicine
Brand medicines are those medicines that are sold and patent by reputed manufacturers such as “Viagra from Pfizer”. You can find them at your local pharmacy or even shop online. Brand medicines are often at an expensive side due to inclusive of advertisement, patents, and other factors.
This is one reason why most people across the world start looking for generic versions of the brand medicine and end up buying fake medicine.
What is a Generic Medicine?
Generic Medicines are something that is very much similar to brand medicine such as Kamagra from Ajanta. Each and everything is up to the benchmark from the medicine active ingredient to dosage everything is similar. The only difference is in the inactive elements that change the color, shape and flavor of the medicine.
These medicines are 100% genuine and safe to consume. As these manufacturers do not spend on R&D and copy the ingredient of brand medicines they are way cheaper in the market. Unlike a brand, you can buy generic medicines online or in the local pharmacy store if it’s legal to sell generic medicines in your country.
What is a Fake Medicine?
Fake medicines or counterfeit drugs are the ones that are fraudulent products. Those are deliberately designed with a motive to loot the people. Some fake medicines look exactly and are packed the same way as the generic and brand medicines. Displayed with all proper labelling and ingredient.
So how do I identify that this is a generic medicine, this is brand and this one is fake?
A simple answer to your question is the source from where you are buying your daily medications. If it is a nearby physical pharmacy store then there are very rare chances that they will sell you a fake medicine. Most of the time people fall under the trap of fake medicines while making an online purchase of generic or brand medicines.
However, this does not mean stop buying medicines online to avoid fake medication purchases. There are a lot of things that can help you identify that something is fishy.
Trusted source
As I have mentioned above the source that you buy from is very important. If it’s an online source that you are buying look for certification of the pharmacy, make sure they have a good online name in the market, ask your friends/family if they have any history of purchasing from that particular online pharmacy. If the source that you are buying is a fraud naturally the medicine delivered is going to be fake medicine.
Identifying good generic drugs
When shifting to Generic Medicine from brand go with some famous names and best manufacturers. Do not make your own choices when selecting generic medicine get help from a health expert. They can guide with some of the best generic medicine brands and may also guide you with legal sources of buying online.
Check the FDA Orange Book for the generic formulation
Do check for the formulation of generic medicines mentioned in the book. You might not only discover the generic names, but also the brand names of the remedies.
Analysing the genuineness of medicine
Be it generic or brand, knowing about fake medicines helps a lot. Hence, you can check for the parameters mentioned below and know the genuineness of the medicines.
• Fake medicines are usually abnormal in color
• The counterfeit medicines get crumbled or break easily
• Check for the spelling, it might be wrong.
• The packaging looks tampered or cheap in quality
