Are Generic Drugs Really Equivalent to Brand Name Drugs?

[David Baxter PhD]

Are Generic Drugs Really Equivalent to Brand Name Drugs?
By Jennifer Gibson, PharmD, in BrainBlogger
January 18, 2009

Generic drugs are valuable in today’s health care system, mostly because they are often sold at a 30 to 80% savings compared to brand name drugs. Consumers save nearly $10 billion annually by buying generic drugs instead of brand name drugs.

...

A similar investigation of bioequivalence examined psychoactive drugs, but concluded that generic drugs may not, in fact, have the same clinical efficacy and tolerability as brand name drugs. All of the psychoactive drugs reviewed were approved as bioequivalent and recommended as appropriate replacements for brand name counterparts when studied in healthy subjects in clinical trials. However, in clinical practice, significant differences were uncovered. Notably, several medications used to control seizures were not as effective as their brand name equivalents and previously seizure-free patients experienced a recurrence of seizures while taking generic medications. The authors of this review concluded that testing of generic drugs should include analysis of clinical use and tolerability in addition to assessment in healthy subjects.

 

[Sparrow]

Interesting article for it's awareness.
Short of the hairsplitting :juggle: between brand names vs. generic which I'll leave to the little men in their white lab coats, here's a few considerations beyond the price.

Many drug plans are set up for generic by default for price considerations. I know my gov't one always has been and probably others too.

Also,

Generic drugs, however, may not contain identical inactive ingredients or have identical formulations, packaging, or appearance.

As in "fillers", I found one generic made me regularily queasy compared to the one I was used to. And later I was able to read the difference between the two labels under inactive ingredients.

:budgie:

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Exactly. Regardless of what this study finds for aggregate data, and even if it is true that the average person won't notice any difference, that doesn't mean that certain generics don't work as well as the brand name version or that generics will be equally effective for all individuals.

 

[NicNak]

I have had sensitivities in changes of generic names before.

I generally try to stay on which ever one I started with, and if a third generation genetic comes along, I fuss to get the previous one.

Currently I am on brand name Effexor, and will stay with brand name, cause that is what I originally started on. My insurance company if fine with it, provided the doctor writes "no substitutions" on the prescription.