Q. I am a cardiologist with a patient who had elevated cholesterol in 2010. Her total cholesterol was 245 and her LDL was 156. This was too high, so I put her on Pravachol. It brought her cholesterol down to under 200 and LDL to around 100.
Last year her insurance company switched her form Pravachol to generic pravastatin. It came from India. After two months on this generic medication her total cholesterol had risen to 249 and her LDL was 151, basically back where she started. Needless to say, I was not pleased, so I prescribed a generic from an Israeli company. Within 6 weeks her cholesterol was back to 196 and her LDL was 113. While she was on the generic from India, it was as if she were taking nothing at all.
A. Over the last decade we have heard from thousands of people who have experienced generic drug failures. Sometimes it happens when they are switched from a brand to a generic. Other times it occurs when one generic product is substituted for another.
We discuss the pros and cons of generic drugs and ways to use generic drugs wisely in our Guide to Saving Money on Medicines. One way to tell if generic drugs are doing the job is to test the results and keep careful records as you did with your patient.
