What a brand alternative is

A medicine is a salt — the active ingredient — at a strength, in a form. Metformin 500 mg, as a tablet. That is the medicine. Everything else on the box is the name a company gave it.

Many companies make the same salt at the same strength in the same form. Each gives it a different name and prints a different price. The one your doctor wrote is one of those names.

What we show you

A brand alternative is another company's name for the identical medicine — every salt, every strength, the same form — priced lower. We put the two side by side, with the composition mirrored, so you can check it yourself.

• Every salt on the strip, matched
• Every strength, matched
• The same form — tablet for tablet
• Made under the same standards

If any salt or strength differs, it is not an alternative. We say we do not have one rather than show a near miss.