(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Perhaps you've had this experience: You go to your local pharmacy to buy medicine. You're inclined to go with the familiar brand name product, the one you know from commercials and other advertising. But the generic version is much less expensive.

"If it's so inexpensive, it must not be as effective or safe," you think. You would be wrong, but many consumers have the same thought.

In this Consumer Update, find out the scientific standards generic drugs must meet to be approved for sale and learn about what FDA does when new complaints or evidence arise indicating that a generic drug may not have the same safety or effectiveness as was previously believed.

The Consumer Update includes a photo slideshow of FDA scientists testing generic drug products.

Send questions, comments or story ideas to: consumerinfo@fda.hhs.gov.

###

For advertising and promotion on www.HealthNewsDigest.com contact Mike McCurdy at: tvmike13@healthnewsdigest.com  or call 877-634-9180. We are syndicated worldwide and read in 164 countries. We also have over 7,000 journalists as subscribers who may use our content for their own media!