The People's Pharmacy® with Joe and Terry Graedon

www.PeoplesPharmacy.com

Report Generic Drug Problem

Generic Drug Problems May 21, 2007

In the field of pharmaceuticals, Americans have been told that price doesn't matter. Generic drugs are supposed to be identical to their brand name counterparts. For nearly 30 years, we believed this argument. We encouraged people to save money by insisting that their physicians prescribe generics whenever they were available.

All that changed several years ago when some pharmacists started telling us they had doubts about the quality of certain generic products. We also began getting letters from readers who had trouble with their generic prescriptions. Readers have shared their disappointment with generic pain relievers, antidepressants, blood pressure medicines and diabetes drugs. The generic drug manufacturers discount these reports.

Kathleen Jaeger, president and ceo of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, has written: "To set the record straight, there are no differences between FDA-approved brand and generic medicines. A generic must meet the same high standards as the brand-name drug, with the same safety and effectiveness, same active ingredients, same strength and dosage, same labeling and use and same high quality manufacturing standards."

While we agree with Ms. Jaeger that FDA approval is rigorous, we worry that once drugs are approved and marketed, monitoring is spotty at best. For the most part, the pharmaceutical industry runs on the honor system. The FDA is not capable of analyzing more than a handful of pill bottles from pharmacy shelves each year. As a result, unscrupulous manufacturers or counterfeiters may be slipping substandard generics into the marketplace.

Joe and Terry Graedon