Self-study
Support Generic drugs contain exactly the same active ingredients as their brand-name counterparts, but Support usually cost much less to develop, produce, and market. ███ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████████████ ███ ████ ████████████ █████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that generic drugs are just cheaper, equally effective versions of brand-name drugs. This is because generic drugs contain the same active ingredients as brand-name drugs but cost less to develop, produce, and market.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes generic drugs have no relevant difference to brand-name drugs beyond the cost. This means assuming that there are no other differences in composition, beyond the active ingredients, that could alter how effective these drugs are.
7.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
The ingredients used ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ █████████████
We already know generic drugs are cheaper, so this doesn't contribute anything new to the argument.
b
Generic drugs are ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██████████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████████
This eliminates a potential problem with the effectiveness of generic drugs in comparison to brand-name drugs, which strengthens the argument.
c
Generic drugs are ████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████ ██ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ███████████
The argument is only about effectiveness and cost, so the availability of different drugs is irrelevant.
d
The higher costs ██ ██████████ █████ ██████████ ████ ██████████ █████ ██████████ ██ █████████
This simply explains why brand-name drugs are more expensive, but we already know that they’re more expensive. Explaining why doesn't affect the argument.
e
Because of advertising, ███████ ██████████ █████████ ██████████ █████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ████████ █████
The argument only focuses on the cost and effectiveness of different drugs. How doctors behave when prescribing drugs is irrelevant.