Generic drugs are the medicines with same active pharmaceutical ingredient and similar therapeutic action as that of brand. They don’t look exactly alike in terms of color, size, shape and packaging, but must have the same strength, dose, route of administration, and active ingredient(s) as of branded drugs. Also, bio-equivalency of these drugs is FDA approved. When the patent of original drug expires, different producers copy and market their own renditions of the medication. Since the manufacture of these conventional medications doesn’t include a repetition of the extensive clinical preliminaries to prove their security and adequacy, it costs less as compared to branded drugs.

Despite all these facts, there are some misconceptions about generic drug among common masses:

What people think	Reality
Generic drugs are most likely to cause adverse effects.	Prior to delivering conventional drug to the market, screening for harmful reaction of drug is done by FDA. It has been evident on basis of studies that the generic drugs show similar response as of branded drug.
Generic does not meet the quality and are not as safe as brand-name drugs.	The FDA ensures that all medications (Generic and branded) are safe and efficacious
All branded drugs have generic counterparts.	This does not apply for all branded drugs. Once new drug is manufactured, it is protected from manufacturing and selling through patent (as per the Patent Act, 1970). After expiration of patent, other manufacturers can start selling generic version of drug after FDA approval.
Generic drugs are cheaper, so they would be less efficacious as compared to branded drugs.	Branded medicines are generally promoted or publicized. Consumers used to buy medicines which are advertised and they find it difficult to purchase and trust the potency of generic medicine.

I, being a science student have read about vaccine during my graduation period. It is a very common term in science and medical field. However, it was never a common term for a common man before this pandemic. As during covid-19 pandemic, two of vaccines (viz., covishield and covaxin) turned out to be a sunshine in immense darkness. Still there is little or no knowledge about its nature, type, working or mechanism of action among the masses .

This blog is meant to enlighten few things about vaccine and to create awareness among common people.

What are vaccines

Vaccines are the injections, fluids or pills or nasal sprays that teach and spark body’s immune system to protect against harmful microorganisms and serious diseases. Vaccines or immunization is recommended for different group of people and should be administered in scheduled manner. It could be live/ attenuated, inactivated, toxoid, m-RNA or viral vector vaccine.

Various trials were conducted by different companies for manufacturing vaccine in response to novel global pandemic, of which, 9 vaccines were approved for use in India and are listed in below table.

How does vaccine work

All vaccines shows its effect by making body available to molecules from the target pathogen to stimulate an immune response, but method of this exposure is variable. After vaccination, wide range of antibody is produced and our body is left with a store of T- as well as B-lymphocytes that will remember how to fight that virus if we are infected in the future.

Vaccine	Manufacturer	Vaccine type	Working of vaccine
Covaxin	Bharat Biotech	Inactivated	Pathogen is killed or modified in such a way that it is unable to replicate.
Corbevax	Biological E limited	Protein subunit	Made using live organisms, which require substrate to grow on
Covovax (Novovax formulation)	Serum institute of India	Protein subunit	Subunit vaccines include only the parts of a virus that best stimulate your immune system.  Contain harmless S-protein Once your immune system recognizes the S proteins, it creates antibodies and defensive white blood cells.
Zycov-D	Zydus Cadila	DNA	Consists of a plasmid that carries a gene that codes for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
Spikevax	Moderna	RNA	Uses genetically designed m-RNA to teach cells to make S-proteins, which is similar to virus. After immunization, our muscle cells start making copies of protein. This makes our body build B- and T-lymphocytes, which will fight the virus in future.
Covishield (Oxford/ Astrazeneca formulation)	Serum institute of India	Non-Replicating Viral vector	Contain modified form of virus (other than covid virus), which contain material from virus that cause COVID-19.
Sputnik V, Sputnik Light	Gamaleya	Non-Replicating Viral vector	This is known as ‘viral vector’. Once viral vector reaches inside our cells, genetic material teaches our cells to make copies of protein, which in turn make B- and T-lymphocytes, which will fight the virus in future.
Ad26.COV2.S	Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)	Non-Replicating Viral vector	This is known as ‘viral vector’. Once viral vector reaches inside our cells, genetic material teaches our cells to make copies of protein, which in turn make B- and T-lymphocytes, which will fight the virus in future.
Vaxzevria	Oxford/ Astrazeneca	Non-Replicating Viral vector	This is known as ‘viral vector’. Once viral vector reaches inside our cells, genetic material teaches our cells to make copies of protein, which in turn make B- and T-lymphocytes, which will fight the virus in future.

“Health is wealth”, “Early to bed early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”, “Happiness begins with good health” etc. We have been paying attention to such articulations since youth. But why? Why there is so much emphasis on having a good health when individual has extraordinary abundance (or great wealth), financial advancement and flourishing, which is needed for a happy life.

‘Arey khao piyo mast raho’, why can’t we just do this! For this, covid-19 pandemic gave most of the preaching before anyone else does. Now, people understand the meaning of real treasure, which is not what they were running after the whole life but real treasure and wealth is health which is usually ignored in daily chores.

Health is not only associated with physical well-being but is also expressed as the state of mental, emotional, spiritual and social well-being. All these states of health contributes in a overall healthy  lifestyle, which means disease-free life that helps and encourage person to perform daily activities in right manner with all senses and enthusiasm. Individual becomes strong enough to serve long, active and happy lifestyle. People with better financial health, for instance, may stress less over finances and have the ability to purchase fresh food more consistently.

Those with great spiritual health may feel a sense of calm, peace and purpose that fills great emotional wellness. People in vedic era were more associated with spirituality and were close to nature, thus, lived relatively stress-free life (Stress being one of factor affecting physical, mental, social and emotional health).

Apart form this, it also improves brain functioning thus, improving productivity. It minimizes the risk of getting sick, builds confidence and assists you with feeling in charge of your life.

Guru Mantra- Self satisfaction, optimism, less expectation are stepping stool for incredible health.