{"id":25149,"date":"2025-05-06T09:24:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T13:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silver.rbcinsurance.com\/en-ca\/?page_id=25149"},"modified":"2025-08-26T11:16:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:16:43","slug":"save-money-with-generic-medication","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/silver.rbcinsurance.com\/en-ca\/group-benefits\/save-money-with-generic-medication\/","title":{"rendered":"Save Money with Generic Medication"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Home<\/a><\/span> > Group Benefits<\/a><\/span> > Save Money with Generic Medication<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

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Save Money with Generic Medication<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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The average cost of a generic drug is only 25% of its brand-name equivalent.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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If you have used your company health plan for prescription medication, you know just how valuable that benefit can be. In fact, 83% of plan members surveyed consider their drug plan to be their most important company benefit.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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While employers are aware of the value of drug plans, increasing claims are costing organizations a significant amount of money. As a result, employers and employees alike are feeling the financial impact of rising claims costs, which brand-name medication can contribute to.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What you can do<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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One easy way that you can help control costs for yourself and your drug plan is to choose generic drugs instead of their brand-name equivalents. For example, the next time you need a prescription, ask your doctor to prescribe a generic alternative. You can also ask your pharmacist if there is a lower-cost generic drug available.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Here are 6 things you may not know about generic drugs:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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  1. The average cost of a generic drug is only 25% of its brand-name equivalent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. A generic drug is essentially a copy of a brand-name drug whose patent has expired. To be approved by Health Canada, a generic drug must have the same quality, purity, effectiveness and safety as the brand-name drug.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Generic drugs must contain the same amount of medicinal ingredients as their brand-name equivalent. A generic’s non-medicinal ingredients, however, such as fillers and ingredients that colour the drug, may be different from its brand-name counterpart (which is why they sometimes look different).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Because generic drug manufacturers are producing a virtually identical drug\u2014without having to invest in research and development\u2014the generic drug is considerably less expensive than the brand-name version.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Many drug plans only cover the lowest cost drug available. If your plan operates this way, choosing the brand-name drug would require you to pay the difference between the cost of the brand-name and generic version.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Generic drugs are used to fill over 40% of all prescriptions in Canada.2<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n