The Food and Drug Administration ensured that whether consumers use a drug that goes by its brand name, such as Zantac, or a drug that goes by the generic name, such as Ranitidine, they will receive the same active ingredients and the same health benefits. To quote FDA Commissioner Jane Henney: “If the FDA declares a generic drug to be therapeutically equivalent to an innovator drug, the two products will provide the same intended clinical effect.”

This is important, Mr. Speaker, because if we ever hope to bring health care inflation under control, we have to understand that brand drugs and generic drugs are truly interchangeable.  Through greater use of high-quality, less-costly, generic drugs, we can have truly affordable and effective medicine.  Check your medicine cabinets – there are more affordable generics available for many of those expensive prescriptions.