Generic Drug Problems
Generic drugs are supposed to be identical to their brand-name counterparts, but many people report problems with generic drug quality. Share your own story.
Should You Worry About Mail-Order Prescriptions?
Many people are encouraged by their insurance company or their pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) to buy their medicines through the mail. They are told they will save money. Mail-order prescriptions are …
Can You Get Celecoxib as Good as Celebrex?
People who rely on pain relievers generally know whether their medication is working or not. We have heard many complaints from readers that their generic celecoxib does not work as well as brand name…
What is a Fair Price for ED Drugs for Sex?
Erectile dysfunction is not considered a serious health problem by most insurance companies. That’s because few, if any, are willing to pay for ED drugs like sildenafil (Viagra), tadalafil (Cialis) …
Breaking Down a Prior Authorization
A prior authorization (PA) is common terminology in pharmacies, but I find it to be very confusing for our patients. Has this ever happened to you? You visit your doctor, discuss prescription options …
Do You Have Any Idea Where Your Pills Are Made?
Do you swallow any pills in the morning? We would be surprised to learn that you don’t. Most Americans swallow a handful without even thinking. Let’s start with vitamins. Millions of people take B…
Are Your HCTZ or Valsartan Blood Pressure Pills …
We can hardly believe this. The FDA announced there are additional blood pressure pills recalled. Yup, you guessed it! The FDA is expanding the valsartan recall...again! We have lost count of how many…
Pharmacist Did Not Tell the Truth About Valsarta…
Over the past month, a recall that at first appeared quite limited in scope has continued to spread. The problem is with an active pharmaceutical ingredient made in China that was contaminated with a …
The Valsartan Recall Disaster Keeps Getting Wors…
The Food and Drug Administration has expanded its recall of the blood pressure drug valsartan for the third time. On July 5th the European Medicines Agency issued an alert that Chinese-made valsartan …
Valsartan Recall Update: How Big Is The Problem?
By now you have read a lot about the valsartan recall. Many lots of the common blood pressure pill, valsartan, have been recalled. Initially, the FDA issued recalls for valsartan from just three manuf…
Show 1131: Was Your Medicine Made in China?
Do you know where your medicines come from? It can actually be something of a challenge to find out, because unlike shirts or apples, drugs do not have to be labeled with country of origin. As it turn…
Chinese-Made Vaccines Caught in Scandal
Chinese manufacturers are embroiled in a domestic scandal. Regulators in China have discovered serious problems with vaccine production. What Is the Chinese Vaccine Scandal? At least two companies hav…
Pharmacist Wouldn’t Take Back Recalled Valsart…
On July 5, 2018 the European Medicines Agency announced a recall of a generic blood pressure medicine called valsartan (Diovan). The active ingredient in some generic formulations was apparently conta…
Worrisome Implications of Valsartan Recall Over …
On July 15, 2018 we issued a People’s Pharmacy Health Alert: Valsartan Blood Pressure Pills Recalled Over Cancer Concerns. We tried to provide you, our faithful readers, the story behind the headlin…
Valsartan Blood Pressure Pills Recalled over Can…
This is scary. Please pay attention. Valsartan (Diovan) is a popular blood pressure and heart medication. According to our calculations, over 16 million prescriptions are dispensed annually. That mean…
Are You Highly Allergic? What To Do About EpiPen…
With warm weather, bees, wasps and other stinging creatures are on the move. That means people who are highly allergic to stings need to keep epinephrine available at all times. This injectable medica…
Generic Celebrex Disappoints | How to Get Author…
The Food and Drug Administration first approved generic Celebrex (celecoxib) on May 30, 2014. Not long after that, we began getting complaints from people in pain. Many maintained that the generic cel…
How Can I Find Sertraline that Works?
Sertraline (Zoloft) is one of the most popular antidepressants in the pharmacy. According to our data, over 7 million people take this medicine every day in the United States. That means it beats out …
In Atenolol Shortage, Will Metoprolol Substitute…
Over the last decade or so, the United States has been increasingly plagued with drug shortages. Sometimes the scarce medications are pricey brand-name products, but frequently enough hospitals and ph…
Can You Afford Your Medicine?
Are you spending more on prescription drugs and enjoying it less? A report from QuintilesIMS Institute shows that prices for medicines are still rising more rapidly than inflation (QuintilesIMS, May 3…
Why Is EpiPen Maker in Trouble Again?
The drug company Mylan got into trouble last year because of the extraordinary increase in its price for its epinephrine auto-injector. The EpiPen maker is now in a different type of trouble with the…
Generic Drugs Can Be Pricier in Canada
Americans pay more for prescription drugs than anyone else on earth. No wonder people are always looking for a way to save money on the medicines they need. But trying to combine two money-saving stra…
Can You Trust Foreign-Made Generic Medicines?
We continue to receive complaints about generic medicines. Many are made in countries where the FDA does not have an adequate number of inspectors. Often the FDA staffers do not speak the native langu…
The Skyrocketing Price of Tetracycline is Shocki…
The antibiotic tetracycline was first marketed in 1967. That means it is 50 years old and is available generically. The price of tetracycline should be very low. This reader discovered quite the oppos…
Indian Generic Drug Company Spanked Again by the…
The Indian generic drug company Wockhardt is in trouble with the Food and Drug Administration...again. This makes the sixth warning letter the company has received. According to FiercePharma (an indus…
Why Is Celecoxib Not Working and What Can People…
Celebrex is a non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. It was supposed to be easier on the stomach than other arthritis drugs. But questions about its heart health slowed sales over the last decade. We r…
Will You Save Money Buying Synthroid from Canada…
Drugs are more expensive in the US than anywhere else in the world. In many other countries, the government puts a cap on what the pharmaceutical companies can charge for their products. This does not…
Giant Generic Drug Scandal: Companies Accused of…
We have long suspected that something was rotten within the generic drug industry. Put aside questions about substandard factories in China and India or fraudulent test results. The latest bombshell t…
Who Is Responsible for Skyrocketing Generic Drug…
Generic drug companies have come under fire in recent years because of extraordinary price increases in their previously affordable products. The cost of medications like the antibiotic doxycycline ha…
How Do Drug Companies Spit in the Face of Capita…
The free market system is supposed to encourage competition. One of the key tenets of capitalism is that prices of products are determined primarily by a competitive marketplace. If company A sells a …
Why Aren’t You Outraged at the High Cost o…
Americans spend far more on medicines than people in any other country in the world. Researchers write in JAMA (Aug. 23-30, 2016) that "List prices for the top 20 highest-revenue grossing drugs were …
People Continue to Complain About Generic Ambien…
We have received so many complaints about generic Ambien that we have lost count. We notified the FDA years ago about this problem but so far there seems to be no interest in finding out what the prob…
Why Did Generic Remeron (Mirtazapine) Disappoint…
People who are seriously depressed depend upon their medication to get through challenging times. Without a reliable medication they can fall back into a dark depression. This reader shares the frustr…
How Can I Save Money with Reliable Canadian Onli…
The cost of prescription drugs has been skyrocketing. Cancer drugs jumped 18% to nearly $40 billion last year. Drugs for Hepatitis C were over $18 billion. Prescription drug prices are far outstrippin…
Is the FDA Putting Americans at Risk with Chines…
The Food and Drug Administration is caught between two hard rocks. On the one hand the agency has been criticized for inadequate oversight of foreign drug manufacturing facilities, especially in China…
Can You Trust Generic Metoprolol from India?
Over the last several years a large number of Indian generic drug manufacturers have been sanctioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In many cases factories have been banned from exporting t…
How Reliable Are Your Generic Drugs From India?
For decades the FDA has told Americans that generic drugs are absolutely identical to brand name medicines. Physicians, pharmacists and insurance companies reassure patients that a $4 generic prescrip…
Why Don’t Generic Drug Names Make Sense?
Pronouncing names properly can be tricky. Prescription drug advertisements on TV tell you how to pronounce the brand names that presumably were designed to be snappy and memorable. Every drug with a b…
Should You Worry About Indian Pharma Firms’…
Over the last several years, dozens of Indian drug manufacturers have received warnings from the FDA about bad manufacturing practices. In one of the latest incidents, Indian pharma firm Wockhardt is …
FDA Warns Sun Pharmaceutical of Quality Problems
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is India's largest drug manufacturer. It supplies many generic medications to the U.S. market. But the giant is once again in trouble with US regulators. FDA Warning to S…
Price Differential between Brand-Name and Generi…
There is no question that generic drugs can offer big savings. Sometimes it is worthwhile to see just how great the price difference might be. Q. My sister takes brand name Ativan, as her doctor does…