Americans just don’t get that brand name medications are exactly the same as generic ones either 😅
The active ingredients are exactly the same. The inactive ingredients may differ and there may be some slight differences in bioavailability that for most people are not significant. There is no reason that the vast majority of people can’t take a generic equivalent of a branded medication. That said, there are sometimes exceptions that need to be considered on a cases-by-case basis. Anyone who says “I can’t take generic medications” is full of shit.
Source: I am a licensed pharmacist.
There is no reason that the vast majority of people can’t take a generic equivalent
There’s no reason why ANYONE can’t take generics. Over here (UK) its extremely unusual to be prescribed a brand. And we’re all absolutely fine.
The difference? Pharmas can’t advertise their products to the general public. Nobody falls for the marketing guff and nobody makes up reasons to need branded medication.
My daughter has an anaphylactic reaction to an inactive ingredient that is present in some generic products but not others. We have to be very aware of what company makes the generics she takes to make sure exactly what they contain. That’s why I say most people can take them and not everyone. Some medications will harm her more than help because of an inactive ingredient.
Surely thats a problem with ALL medications then? Not just generics?
Ok…but generics are not always compounded for delivery like the original brand, I.e. slow release, enteric coatings, dose size, different fillers.
But a licensed pharmacist should know that.
I don’t know if you are in the US, but AB-rated generic equivalents are determined to have a release profile that is within an acceptable range of variance from the reference product to still be considered equivalent. I’m not saying that all diltiazem products are equivalent because obviously Cardizem injection is not the same as Cardizem CD is not the same as Cardizem LA is not the same as Cardizem regular tablet. What I’m saying is that Cardizem CD 240 mg capsules and all of the AB rated equivalents a pharmacy would substitute for it may have some subtle differences, but in general they don’t matter clinically for patients.
The fun part is the generics aren’t always the exact same medication! In most cases it is a 1:1 between name brand and generic but there’s always edgecases, whether due to allergies or quality control or sometimes the recipe differences actually impact the potence and performance of the medication
Not all of them are though my wife can only take the name brand of cimbalta because the generic fucks with her body
TAG@lemmy.world 4 days ago
With prescriptions, it is not about what the customer wants, it is about what brands the insurance wants to cover (and getting a doctor that does not write a brand specific prescription). If an insurance company only covers a weird brand of a common (but expensive) medicine, the customer either has to hunt for a pharmacy that has it in stock, wait for their local pharmacy to order it (in either case delaying when the insurance company has to pay for it), or buy the in-stock brand without any insurance coverage. The insurance can still claim they cover the drug while paying less for it.
At one point, I was on a medicine that had a very high co-pay for the brand name and would not cover the generic. It was so high that it was cheaper for me to buy the generic uninsured instead of paying the co-pay.