Title: generic
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - generic
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.15192
Status: current

Definition
Drug(s) or formulation(s) of drug(s) or dosage forms, which no longer have patent protection.

Notes
1) Generic or nonproprietary drugs that may enter the market after the expiry of the basic patent covering the original drugs.
2) Nonproprietary drugs are required to meet the same bioequivalency test as the original brand name drugs.
3) Generic products may themselves bear brand names.

Related Term
- dosage forms: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15175

Source
- PAC, 2009, 81, 971. 'Glossary of terms related to pharmaceutics (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 986 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-04-10-14)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15192/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15192/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15192/xml

Citation: Citation: 'generic' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.15192
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-28T15:48:32+00:00