Woke up today feeling dire (cough cough) so I instantly reached for the medicine cabinet to find anything resembling Nurofen. In our house, we call anything that fixes headaches, fevers and pains Nurofen but the reality is that it's only my husband who will cough up a few quid for the real deal. I am a bargain shopper and am totally sold on Tesco's copycat ibuprofen tablets for 32p! They do the same, they look the same, they taste the same, but I save about £1.40.
Once a drug patent expires and the pharmaceuticals company has recouped the cost of R&D, other manufacturers have the right to manufacture and market a generic drug like ibuprofen under their own brand name like Anadin Ultra or without a brand name like Tesco's own label version. Sometimes the inactive ingredients may vary making one better or easier to absorb than another but in most cases, there is no difference at all.
So why do customers still pay more for an expensive version of the same drug just to contribute to the manufacturer's marketing and profit margin? It can be down to education - not knowing that the formulations have the same efficacy. It could be because those customers are not price sensitive. It's probably because they believe and trust the advertising claims and that they like the brand, its values and its packaging. And it can also be about heuristics: I always buy this brand and I have confidence in it. You can also think about when that purchase is made... in a relaxed shopping situation where you can browse the list of ingredients and make a price comparison, or running into the chemist to grab a solution to your blinding migraine - in that case, an instant decision may be made on which packet you trust to cure you the quickest. Regardless of the generic competition, Nurofen is still the fastest growing analgesic brand globally and leads the pack in the UK, Australia and New Zealand - the drugs work and so does the branding.
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