Generic medicines have made inroads towards the path previously held by brand-name products in the last two decades. The high price of branded medicines is starting to become the focus of attention especially with the cost of healthcare throughout the world remaining prohibitive. The high prices that people used to pay for branded medicines are now becoming less and less an automatic decision for people buying their medication today perhaps because of an awareness that the same medication produced by other pharmaceutical companies may cost substantially less but may have the same quality.

Although initially encountering resistance due to the massive propaganda campaign brought on by the manufacturers of branded medicines who have invested heavily on research and brand advertising, people are wising up to the equation that Generics, or ?Biosimilar? products, should have the same efficacy as those with recognizable brand names. So long as the same standards are applied to evaluate the safety and efficacy of both generic and branded medical products, then misinformation and negative propaganda will not have any room in the people's minds at all.

On the medical prescription side, doctors are actually trained to prescribe generic names of medications for particular illnesses. Brand names were often introduced into the equation when the pharmaceutical companies lobbied with the doctors to push certain brands into the preferred prescriptions.

On the consumer side, the key to choosing a suitable generic product is to know the ?AI? or Active Ingredient of the medication. The label of the medicine you purchase holds the key. Other than the brand name, it will prominently have the ?Active Ingredient? displayed beside or below the product name. For instance, paracetamol is an active ingredient in most branded anti-inflammatory or headache relief tablets. But which brand and at which dosage would be the most effective for you? Knowing the active ingredient in your medication and what it essentially does for your condition will help you make an informed decision about which medicine to take ? and one which is not only based on the price.

This goes as well for medications for gender-specific concerns ? such as Erectile Dysfunction. One of the top lifestyle medications today for the condition is Viagra with sales hovering over the $1 billion mark. With its immense popularity, it is inevitable that the demand for a generic equivalent will be quite high as well ? but this opens the doors for counterfeit medications. So prudence and caution should be exercised in this aspect. The active ingredient of Viagra is Sildenafil Citrate, and the drug is manufactured by Pfizer. Pfizer also manufactures Revatio, which is also Sildenafil Citrate, but is prescribed for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and for improving exercise ability.

Tadalafil, which is based on the chemical compound IC351, is marketed under the brand name Cialis. It works pretty much like Viagra, but has a longer potency period of 36 hours, thus earning the moniker the "weekend pill".

Vardenafil, marketed under the brand name Levitra, is another Erectile Dysfunction medication. It works also pretty much like Viagra, but at lower dosages. Levitra is available at 2.5mg, 5mg, 10 mg, and 20mg doses, with the 10mg dose being more or less equivalent to a 50 mg dose of Viagra.

Viagra, Revatio, Levitra, and Cialis all work to provide a temporary treatment for Erectile Dysfunction. All four are PDE5 Inhibitor medications. And although each one may have subtle variations from the others, when properly prescribed by your healthcare physician, anyone of them will probably work to suit your need but it would be best to seek advice from your trusted health care professional before deciding on anything.