These days many prescription medicines are available in more than one brand. You may have discovered this when your pharmacist asked you if you would like a cheaper brand than the one the doctor prescribed.

If your doctor or pharmacist gives you a medicine with an unfamiliar name, it is important that you find out if it is a different brand of one of your usual medicines, or a new medicine. Knowing this will help you avoid problems. Unfortunately, sometimes people don’t realise their ‘new’ medicine is simply another brand of their usual medicine, and so take both, therefore taking double the intended dose.

Every prescription medicine has two names: one is the ‘brand name’, the other is the ‘generic name’. Like many things we buy, medicines are usually referred to by their brand names. For example, Prozac is the well known brand name of a medicine for depression, but the generic drug name of the medicine is fluoxetine.

Different brands of a particular medicine share the same generic drug name. For example, ranitidine is the generic name of a medicine for stomach ulcers. However, most people who take ranitidine probably think of it as Zantac, which is the brand name it was given by its original manufacturers.

Some of the brands of 150 mg ranitidine tablets available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
1. Ranihexal
2. Ranitidine BC
3. Rani 2
4. Ranoxyl
5. Ranitidine
6. Zantac
7. Ausran

Nowadays, several other companies also make ranitidine, and each has given it a different brand name. Other brands include Ausran, Rani 2, Ranihexal and Ranoxyl. In addition, some of the big pharmacy Different brands of a particular medicine share the same generic drug name. chains have their own brands of ranitidine, such as Chemmart Ranitidine, healthsense Ranitidine, Terry White Chemists Ranitidine.

Usually, both the generic name and the brand name appear on the label. The generic name appears in brackets below the brand name. To find out if two medicines are the same, look for the generic names on the labels. If the generic names are the same, the medicines are different brands of the same medicine. If the generic names are different, the medicines are not the same. (Also, medicines come in different strengths, so check that the strengths are the same too.)

The first brand of a medicine is often referred to as the ‘original brand’ or ‘premium brand’. Later brands are often referred to as ‘generic brands’.

Different brands of a particular medicine share the same generic drug name.

Generic brands have to meet the same manufacturing quality and safety standards as the original brand. They also have to be tested to show that they work in the same way in the body as the original brand. The advantage of generic brands is that they usually cost less.