Medicine Substitutes — How to Find a Cheaper Alternative at the Pharmacy

Your doctor gives you a prescription. At the pharmacy, the pharmacist hands you a pack that costs 45 zł. You ask whether there is anything cheaper. It turns out that a medicine with the same active ingredient, in the same dose, costs 12 zł. The difference? The brand name.

Situations like this happen every day in Polish pharmacies. The problem is that most people only find out about a cheaper equivalent at the counter — or never find out at all. According to NFZ data, people in Poland spend more than 40 billion złoty a year on medicines, and a significant share of that amount is overpayment for branded products that have cheaper equivalents.

What if you could check substitutes before leaving home?

What are medicine substitutes?

A medicine substitute is a product that contains the same active ingredient, in the same dose and the same pharmaceutical form as the original medicine. In other words, it works in the same way because it is the same medicine under a different brand name.

Medicines are classified using the ATC (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical) system, developed by the WHO. Each medicine receives a code that precisely describes how it works. At the lowest level of this classification — ATC level 5 — you find medicines with the same active ingredient. This is the level that identifies true substitutes.

Why are there different names for the same medicine in the first place? When a pharmaceutical company develops a new substance, it is protected by a patent for several years. Once the patent expires, other manufacturers can produce the same substance — these are generic medicines. They go through the same bioequivalence tests and must meet identical quality standards. They cost less because the generic manufacturer did not bear the cost of years of clinical trials.

A pharmacist can suggest a substitute, but is not required to do so. It is worth checking for yourself before you reach the counter.

When is a substitute safe?

Safe substitution requires three conditions to be met at the same time:

• the same active ingredient (the same level-5 ATC code),
• the same dose (e.g. 400 mg, not 200 mg),
• the same pharmaceutical form (tablet for tablet, syrup for syrup).

When all three elements match, the substitute is therapeutically equivalent — it has the same action, absorption and safety profile. Before being authorised for the market, every generic medicine undergoes bioequivalence testing to confirm that the body absorbs it in the same way as the original. This is not a matter of trust — it is a legal requirement.

When NOT to switch on your own

There is a group of medicines with a narrow therapeutic index, where even a minimal difference in bioavailability between products can have serious consequences. This mainly applies to:

• thyroid hormones (levothyroxine) — a small dose change affects the whole hormonal balance,
• anticoagulants (warfarin, acenocoumarol) — risk of bleeding or thrombosis,
• anti-epileptic medicines (carbamazepine, phenytoin, valproic acid) — risk of seizures returning,
• immunosuppressive medicines (cyclosporine, tacrolimus) — used after transplants.

With these medicines, always discuss the switch with your doctor. Even if the active ingredient is identical, differences in excipients can affect how the medicine is absorbed.

How to search for substitutes in mojApteczka

mojApteczka lets you find substitutes in a few seconds. Search for a medicine by name, and the app shows results grouped on two levels:

• Exact substitutes (ATC 5) — medicines with the same active ingredient, in the same dose and form. These are direct equivalents that you can switch to safely.
• Medicines from the same pharmacological group (ATC 4) — products with a similar mechanism of action, but with a different active ingredient. Useful when you are looking for an alternative because of intolerance or side effects — but they require a doctor’s advice.

Importantly, for each substitute you can see whether you already have it in your inventory. It may turn out that a cheaper equivalent has been sitting in your home medicine cabinet for weeks — bought at some point under another name, but containing exactly the same active ingredient.

You do not need to know pharmacology or understand ATC codes. The app does it for you — just enter the medicine name and review the results. You can find details of the substitute search on the medicine substitutes feature page.

Check availability at the pharmacy

Finding a cheaper substitute is half the job. The other half is checking whether a nearby pharmacy has it in stock. There is nothing more frustrating than going to the pharmacy for a specific product and hearing: “Unfortunately, we do not have it. I can order it for tomorrow.”

That is why mojApteczka integrates with GdziePoLek — Poland’s largest medicine availability database for pharmacies. Once you have found a substitute, you can immediately check which pharmacy in your area has it available and at what price. You save time and avoid unnecessary trips.

This is especially useful for medicines that periodically disappear from the market or have limited distribution. Instead of calling pharmacies one by one, you check availability with a single click. You also see prices at different pharmacies, so you can choose not only the cheapest substitute but also the cheapest pharmacy nearby.

The whole process — from finding a substitute to checking where to buy it — takes literally a minute. No leaving home, no waiting in a queue.

How much can you save?

Price differences between original medicines and generics in Poland can be huge. Depending on the product, we are talking about 30% to even 70% less.

Take a simple example. Ibuprofen 400 mg — one of the most commonly bought painkillers in Poland. A branded product costs about 15–20 zł in a pharmacy for 20 tablets. A generic with the same active ingredient, in the same dose? From 4 to 8 zł.

For a single medicine, the difference may seem small. But calculate it for the whole family. Suppose there are five medicines at home that are bought regularly — a painkiller, an allergy medicine, something for reflux, something for blood pressure, and a supplement. If you switch from a branded product to a generic for each one, you save an average of 15–25 zł per month per medicine. Over a year, that is 900–1500 zł less spent on medicines, with no compromise in treatment effectiveness.

For older adults who take a dozen or more long-term medicines, the savings are even greater. Older adults on polytherapy (taking 5 or more medicines at the same time) are the group that benefits most from systematically looking for substitutes. With ten long-term medicines, the saving can reach several thousand złoty a year.

And yet the cheaper equivalent works in exactly the same way. Same composition, same effect, different label.

5 rules for safe medicine substitution

1. Compare the active ingredient, not the brand name. The name on the pack is marketing. The active ingredient (shown in smaller print under the name) is the medicine’s real content. Two products with the same active ingredient in the same dose work identically.

2. Check the dose and form. A 200 mg tablet is not the same as a 400 mg tablet. A prolonged-release capsule is not the same as a regular tablet. When switching, all three parameters — ingredient, dose and form — must match.

3. Discuss long-term medicines with a pharmacist or doctor. If you have been taking something every day for years, do not switch on your own. A pharmacist can assess whether the switch is safe in your specific case.

4. Do not switch medicines with a narrow therapeutic index without a doctor. This applies especially to levothyroxine, warfarin, anti-epileptic medicines and immunosuppressive medicines. A difference in bioavailability that does not matter with ibuprofen can have serious consequences here.

5. Check interactions with other medicines. A new substitute may contain different excipients. Make sure it does not interact with the rest of your medicines — in mojApteczka you can check this automatically for your entire inventory. You can find details on the drug interactions checker page.

Find substitutes in mojApteczka

You do not need to overpay for medicines to receive effective treatment. You just need to know that a cheaper equivalent exists — and that it is available at the pharmacy next door.

mojApteczka combines an ATC-based substitute search, pharmacy availability checks and automatic interaction checking in one tool. Everything is free, in your browser, with no app download needed.

Search for your first medicine at mojapteczka.pl and see how much you can save. The Android app is also available on Google Play.

Have questions about medicine substitutes? Write to us at kontakt@mojapteczka.pl — we will be happy to help!