The UK patent for Propecia, a hair loss treatment for men, expired on the 11th Oct 2014. A few days later ‘generic Propecia’ or more accurately ‘generic finasteride’ became available from UK pharmacies. A generic medicine is a medicine which is the same as a branded original, but is prescribed and supplied by its medical name, rather than its brand name.
Propecia is a brand name. The active ingredient of Propecia tablets is finasteride 1mg. Propecia tablets and finasteride 1mg tablets are medically the same.
Dr Fox supplies both branded Propecia tablets from the drug company Merck (MSD), which held the original patent, and lower cost generic finasteride 1mg tablets, which other drug companies have made available since Merck’s UK patent expired.
Why patent expiry matters
When a medicine comes off patent price can fall dramatically. Men, who previously paid very high prices for Propecia, may be able to buy medically identical finasteride 1mg at lower prices. Read in full
Everyone loses hair from time to time, with an average of 50-100 hairs lost per day, but if your hair is starting to disappear at a faster rate than normal it can often be cause for alarm. But hair loss is not a modern phenomenon, mankind has been losing hair for hundreds of years, even Julius Caesar’s famed laurel wreath is rumoured to have been a disguise for his thinning hair.