Brand Name and Generic Drugs

Use Generic Drugs

A group of doctors found a whopping 29% reduction in the amount of phenytonin in the systems of their subjects after switching to the brand vs. generic drugs from Dilantin. The increase in the seizures those patients were having. The seizures abated after the patients were switched back to brand. Another test also reported different serum concentrations. Although vague secondary effects were mentioned, the differences in the amount of the treatment in patients system were due to, are you ready? The reported difference in pill content between the brand vs. generic drugs name lots used in this test.

Patients switched from brand Lamictal to generic lamotrigine also lost seizure control. As above, once switched back to the brand vs. generic drugs most of they regained their seizure control. If the lamotrigine in this case was manufactured by Apotex, my guess is the differences in bioequivalence, bioavailability and/or pharmacological equivalence, which dont have a strict numbers that I could find anywhere on the Byzantine Health Canada site, were just enough to set patients off. This Danish test gives some hard numbers from their manufacturer. Many personal experience with Apotex products has been entirely positive, and you rather sensitive to these things. As per this Canadian test on the use of brand vs. generic drugs anticonvulsants in epilepsy, when it comes to drugs that have a narrow therapeutic index, Although generic AEDs [anti-epileptic drugs] are lower in price, possible increased side effects and morbidity and the need for closer monitoring could partially offset the cost savings. The results of our survey highlight significant unawareness of the process of brand vs. generic drugs substitution among both patients and neurologists and reveal a general level of discomfort among neurologists to prescribe brand vs. generic drugs AEDs.

Of course when the names of the companies are involved you can tell who paid for the tests, and so you can see that some brand vs. generic drugs. Or at least meet that 30% variation, which will be good enough for some patients. Many patients look the information about the brand vs. generic drugs and manufacturers paying for the test, which we all know that will skew the results in favor of the tests sponsor, one unnamed generic still failed. And this test was testing only for bioequivalence, and not how well they worked.