In addition to asking your local pharmacist for assistance, there are three ways to find out if there is a generic version of your brand-name medicine available:
- Use Drugs@FDA, a catalog of FDA-approved drug products, including their drug labeling.
- Search for generic equivalents by using the online version of the “Orange Book.”
- First, search by proprietary or “brand” name.
- Second, search again by the active ingredient name.
- If other manufacturers are listed besides the brand-name manufacturer in result for searches by the “active ingredient,” they are the generic product manufacturers.
- For very recent approvals, consult the First Generics List.
If you are unable to locate a generic version of your brand-name medicine, it may be that the brand-name medicine is still within the period of time when it has exclusive rights to the marketplace, to allow drug companies to recoup their costs for the initial research and marketing of the brand-name or innovator drug. It is only after both patent and other periods of exclusivity are resolved that FDA can approve generic versions of the medicine.
