According to the report published in the Dec. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, generic heart drugs work just as well as their brand name treatments.
The new analysis should put an end to the doubts people have regarding the generic drugs’ benefits even after 25 years. Articles and reviews written by specialists in a number of medical journals all these years have been urging people against using cost-effective generics as compared to their brand-name counterparts.
Patients receiving generics instead of brand name drugs to lower cholesterol, reduce blood pressure or prevent heart attacks or strokes fare equally well, the researchers at the Harvard Medical School revealed after analysis of 47 studies of nine types of drugs.
To know the efficacy of the brand-name drugs and to see if they were, in any way, superior to their generic counterparts, Kesselheim and his colleagues examined 43 articles published in medical journals and other related newspapers and found that nearly half of these held a negative view of generic drugs, thus contributing to negative publicity about generics.
“Brand-name manufacturers have suggested that generic drugs may be less effective and safe than their brand-name counterparts,” revealed the study authors.
“Anecdotes have appeared in the lay press raising doubts about the efficacy and safety of certain generic drugs,” maintained the authors.
Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, lead author of a study and an instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said, “We found no evidence that brand-name drugs are any better in terms of clinical outcomes than generic drugs.” He further said that “The FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] has approved all generic drugs and certifies that they are bioequivalent, meaning equivalent in all biological and chemical characteristics of the drug.”
The latest report hopes to bring a change in the perception of the people towards generics, maintains Kesselheim, as the findings of the study represent “hopefully another step in helping combat the misperception that brand-name drugs are clinically superior.”
“Generic drugs are available for nearly every condition but generally are underused in the marketplace, and one of the reasons they’re underused is that there is a perception out there among physicians and patients that brand-name drugs are better than generic drugs,” Kesselheim said.
“There are a number of studies out there saying that generic drugs should be an important part of a physicians prescribing treatment, that they’re able to reduce costs and improve patient adherence which can lead to better patient outcomes,” Kesselheim revealed.
Generic drugs cost 30 to 80 percent less than their brand-name counterparts. Although they account for 65 percent of U.S. prescriptions, many physicians still question the safety of these drugs. Generic drugs may differ in terms of color or shape of the pill as well as some of the inert binders, they, however, contain the same ingredients as their brand-name drugs and also come with the added advantage of costing lesser.
Post new comment