As with other generic brand products in the marketplace, generic herbicides often have a lower initial product cost than their brand-name counterparts. While the purchase price of herbicides is important to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), it is essential to look at more than just initial costs to determine whether generic or branded products is the best practice. One should consider safety, effectiveness, and application rates/procedures as well as product availability and equipment requirements. This project focused on three herbicides (Roundup PROMAX®, Escort® XP and Transline®) that TxDOT currently uses. The multi-disciplinary research team conducted a literature review, survey of practice, and cost/benefit analysis to determine whether generic herbicides meet equivalent performance, toxicology, environmental impact, and safety requirements as branded herbicides with significant cost-savings. This study found that generic products with the same or similar formulation often proved equivalent to branded products in human/wildlife effects, performance, and equipment requirements. However, the potential lack of quality control was identified as a concern because many of the generic herbicides were produced overseas. The uncertainties of inert ingredients also made assessments of risks and performance unclear. Meanwhile, the cost-saving benefit by using generic products was not proven, particularly for projects requiring a large amount of herbicide. The generic product may have a cheaper price but may not include the same amount and quality of active ingredient as the brand-name product. Therefore, to achieve an equivalent rate of active ingredient, more of the generic material may need to be used, thereby potentially eliminating whatever cost savings was realized at the initial purchase of the generic product. Other concerns identified with generic herbicides include the lack of availability, and lack of diverse discounts offered by branded herbicide manufacturers.
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