Posted by bleauberry on December 3, 2007, at 19:07:33
In reply to Switching from one generic to another, posted by sukarno on December 3, 2007, at 5:07:14
I have experienced problems with generics myself. The topic comes up here regularly, so you are by no means the only one to question the quality of generics.
The active ingredient is required to be within 10% of the brand. Well, if one dose is 10% high, the other 10% low, guess what, the dose is 20% different than the previous dose. That's a huge jump. That's even a much larger jump than I take when titrating up on a med or weaning off a med.
Scientists would probably poo-poo the idea, but I have a gut feeling the binders and fillers in the pills, even though they are supposedly inert, can have a huge impact on how the active ingredient molecule behaves. Not only that, but it seems apparant to me that most people who are chronically ill either mentally or physically have weakened immune systems and stressed bodies, which makes them vulnerable to being sensitive or intolerant of many things they ingest. Gluten and dairy are the most obvious. But who is to say you aren't sensitive to the filler in that pill, the filler that was not in the previous brand? Or a food color. Did you know that a significant number of people react to the food colors red or yellow? Of course they don't realize it, they just figure it's another bad day.
Anyway, whatever, yeah, generics seem problematic. Enterprising people here have discovered their favorite brands of generics, or prefer the name brand, and they go out of their way to be sure their prescription is filled with the exact brand they are accustomed to.
As you noted, some of these generics are manufactured overseas. Do we really think the FDA is going to be right on top of that? I don't know. Doesn't seem likely to me. I also wonder about the actual active ingredient. Say for example the brand version involves heating some concoction for 10 minutes at 300 degrees to evaporate something, but the generic factory accomplishes the same thing by heating it 8 minutes at 350 degrees. Just because the final product is the same molecular structure...on paper anyway...it was created by a different process and might not actually behave the exact same way. Just a personal theory of mine. I mean, if I bake the same recipe of bread but at different temps and different times, the end results are still the exact same bread, except they taste a little different and the texture is a little different. But the ingredients are exactly the same. ??? Or maybe one company uses methanol and another uses ethanol and another uses water. Even though the end product is supposedly the same, is it really?
As I look back on my own history, I was doing fine on brand prozac. Then when it went generic I was switched. With its long halflife, and with me being totally unsuspecting, I didn't really notice that something had changed until a couple months later. Things were never the same after that. Coincidence? Don't know.
poster:bleauberry
thread:798413
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071125/msgs/798575.html