Ashok Pinnamaraju is a pharmacist and the owner of Williamson Road Pharmacy in Roanoke, Virginia. In this position, Ashok Pinnamaraju continues his career-long dedication to ensuring that customers have all the information they need about their prescriptions, including the availability of generic options.

In United States pharmacies, approximately 80 percent of filled prescriptions are for generic drugs. By law, generic drugs must contain the same active ingredient at the same dosage and strength as their brand-name counterparts. 

Generic drugs must enter the body in the same way as the brand-name drugs, such as orally or by injection, and must have the same stability and purity levels as the brand-name. In addition, testing of the generic drug must reveal its bioequivalency to a comparable brand-name drug. 

To be bioequivalent, a generic drug must show no more variation in blood concentration than a batch of the brand-name drug. Bioequivalency data must demonstrate that the generic drug performs at the same level as the brand-name drug. As long as this is the case and all drug production sites meet rigorous FDA requirements, the generic drug can receive approval for sale.