You might have earlier received the prescription for Cialis drug from the doctor for your ED (or impotence) and noticed your prescription says Tadalafil. Maybe your prescription has been for Tadalafil only, but while you collected the medicine from your pharmacy the name of the medicine was Cialis. But, now label on tablets says Tadalafil. Maybe, your drugs look very different from ones that you have collected from the pharmacy – they’re of different color or shape. Thus, you might be thinking if they’re the similar thing or if somebody has made any mistake or given you the different drug.
Answer is no, there is not any mistake. In today’s article, we are going to look at why the medicine seems to have the changed names & why your medicine might look very different.
Why has name of my drug changed?
Certain medicines will have just one name, but many medicines are actually known by many names. All drugs will have one common and official generic name that generally describes chemical composition of an active drug, or chemical name is a bit complicated, simpler name. Simpler name will be the shorter form of a chemical name or related to a way it works. Generic name, known as non-proprietary name, can be used for describing medicine wherever it is used. So, you may imagine this confusion if each country plan to call this same medicine by the different name!
Besides the generic name, medicine will be known by the unique brand name that is given by the pharmacy company that developed this product. Branded medicine is protected by the patent and name will not be used by any other drug firm to describe the medicine with same active generic mix. The patent can protect not only the chemical composition & form (like tablet, liquid, inhaler and more) of a medicine, but various other things, color and shape of the medicine.
Confused? Let us take a look by using specific example of certain medicines used for treating ED, of which Cialis tablet is one of them.
Where does Cialis drug fit with other drugs for ED?
Viagra, called by its generic name Sildenafil, was first oral drug accessible to treat ED. This medicine, available first in the UK, was, not surprisingly, very popular. With a huge success of Viagra, this race was to develop same medicines. Till date, five oral drugs in a same chemical class like Viagra are developed to treat Ed. Whereas these medicines have got the same structure & work in the same way like Viagra, but they’re different enough, thus, have got their generic names as well as are given various brand names by companies who developed them. And one of the drugs is Cialis® or Tadalafil (its generic name).
