Comparative study of anti-inflammatory activity of some branded generic and generic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

Generic drugs play a very important role in health care. A study was undertaken to ascertain the equality or inequality between generics and branded generics. NSAIDs are the most commonly used drugs. So these drugs were chosen for the study. Selected branded generic and generic products of ibuprofen, nimesulide, and diclofenac sodium were tested by oral administration of their suspensions to different groups of rats. Freshly prepared drug suspensions equivalent to doses of 40, 10, and 5 mg/kg of ibuprofen, nimesulide, and diclofenac sodium, respectively, were administered orally to the rats and anti-inflammatory activity was measured by the carrageenan-induced rat paw edema model employing Zeitlin’s apparatus to measure the paw thickness. Statistical analysis by t-test, of the activity at the point of maximum difference indicated that with respect to anti-inflammatory activity generic ibuprofen and generic diclofenac sodium are better than branded generic ibuprofen and branded generic diclofenac sodium, respectively, and generic nimesulide is similar to branded generic nimesulide. All the products studied meet the Pharmacopoeial requirements. Hence it may be concluded that branded generic and generic NSAIDs, tested in this study, are of the same efficacy and inter-changeability among branded generics, and switching between branded generics and generics would not result in any difference in efficacy.