How to Identify Generic Medication
Generics include the same active ingredients as brand name medications, but cost a lot less. If a drug is a generic, it will be clearly labeled as such on your pill bottle and on patient information you receive. But unfortunately, because they don't always come in fancy packaging or in designer-looking pills, they can be more difficult to identify, especially when you have lots of plain white tablets to take each day. Learn how to identify your generic medications, and be sure to ask for them when they're available.
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Instructions
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Look at the color and shape. Often, generics will look, well, generic--a plain, round, white pill--but not always. This is because all FDA-approved medications must be uniquely identifiable, and so they come in different colors and shapes. Note that generic pills will almost always look different from their brand name equivalents, but how depends on the specific medication.
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Look at the imprint. Because there's a limited number of shapes and colors out there, every FDA-approved medication must also have an imprint. Using a magnifying glass if you need to, look at your pill for the words, numbers, or symbols imprinted on it.
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Consult your patient packaging. Most pharmacies, like Walgreens, include diagrams of your medication on the packaging that show the shape and tell you the color and imprint. The patient labeling will also say if your pill is a generic or brand name medication.
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Try an online search. There are plenty of online pill databases out there, like RxList and Drugs.com, that allow to you type in the color, shape and imprint on the pill and it will give you possible matches.
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Consult a reference book. If you'd rather use the old-fashioned way, you can buy or borrow books, such as The Pill Book, that list all the FDA-approved drugs for that year along with color photos of most pills.
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Ask your pharmacist. Take the pill into a pharmacist and ask for their help. They can look through their records and tell you quickly which pill it is and if it's a generic or a brand name pill, especially if you're sure that the pill in question is one prescribed to someone at your home and filled at their pharmacy.
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