Why do my pills look different?
Q. Sometimes when I refill my prescriptions, the pills look different. Why is that?
A. U.S. trademark laws prohibit generic drug manufacturers from copying the shape, color, or size of a brand-name pill. Many companies also choose to produce drugs that look different from competitors’ generics. The result? Different versions of the same drug can look different depending on who made them, making pill identification difficult.
The good news is that cosmetic differences aside, all versions of a particular drug must contain the same active ingredient as the brand-name drug and meet the same requirements for dosage, safety, strength, and quality.
The major difference between generics and brand-name medicines is price: generics usually cost less. About half of the prescription medications sold in the U.S. have a generic equivalent. If you don’t know whether you’re taking a generic or not, ask your doctor.
You may find that your pills look different than you expected when your pharmacy changes suppliers—which can happen often due to drug price fluctuations among suppliers. If you’re worried, always open the pills at the drugstore; if they look unfamiliar, ask the pharmacist to confirm that you’ve been given the right medication.
If you receive pills by mail, call your mail-order pharmacy to check. You can also use the National Library of Medicine pill lookup, at pillbox.nlm.nih.gov. All drugs can be identified by a combination of their shape, color, scoring marks, and the letters and numbers imprinted on them.
For more information on drugs, including cost-effective medication choices and in-depth reports on drugs for many common conditions, see our Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs.
A version of this article also appeared in the May 2015 issue of Consumer Reports on Health.
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