Generic Medication

[Domino]

I don't know what to think about this.

My mom is taking some medication that is thankfully provided in a generic form (otherwise, we couldn't afford it) but we noticed that the packaging had changed, and hence, the manufacturer. Ever since then (in January), it's been apparent that the generic isn't working. She's getting all manner of side effects. (I can't say what she's taking because it would be TMI for a forum). I frequent the People's Pharmacy online and they've logged a million reports on a wide range of drugs that don't work correctly in generic form.

Has anyone else experienced problems with generics?

I'm not sure what to do about this because we can't afford the name brand. I've written to another drug company and asked for financial aid to help with another prescription of hers (she qualifies, thank goodness), but other than doing that again with this particular medication, I can't see that she'll be able to stay on this generic because it's doing weird things to her.

 

[Ender]

I came across this in a quick search.. There any other "generic" versions of the medication?

Though federal law strictly mandates that name brand and generic drugs must contain equal amounts of identical active ingredients, different generic drugs contain different inactive ingredients. The ingredients used to increase the size of pills to usable dimensions (you would barely be able to see a pill that actually weighed 25mg) vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Sometimes, patients may have an unexpected sensitivity to one of these "filler" ingredients, or to the agents used to color the pills.

Other times, certain physical properties of the pill might be different between the name brand and generic versions. For example, one might dissolve more quickly in the stomach. This is a little bit complicated, because the law says that the actual bioavailability of the generic must be the same as the name brand, but it is possible to make pills that dissolve more quickly in the stomach while the active ingredient is still absorbed from the stomach at the same rate. For some medications, even though the drug isn't leaving the stomach at a different rate, having a relatively high concentration of active ingredient "sitting" in the stomach can cause irritation that leads to upset stomach or nausea.

Very rarely, patents may actually be allergic to one or more of the inactive ingredients used in generic medicines.

If you are having side effects after being switched to a generic drug, the first thing to do is wait a while. You might just need a little time to adjust to the new formulation. This shouldn't take longer than a week or two, though, so if you're still having the side effects after waiting for that long, make an appointment to see your doctor. In some cases, there may be more than one generic formulation of the drug available, which means that you can try another generic and see if the side effects go away. If there are no other generics, it might be necessary to switch back to the name brand drug.

Reading the part on bioavailability.. If the medication your mom is taking is in pill form you could try breaking it in half and instead of say taking one every four hours.. take half one every two? That could help with the "concentration amount" issue they're talking about. Kinda like Drinking a 40 over the course of a day vs in a half hour.. the latter would have you quite hammered where as the former may only result in a mild buzz.


All that said I do know from when I worked for a Pharmaceutical company in the past, when we ran the production we'd produce both the name brand and the generic at basically the same time, the only thing that was changed was the packaging for most of the medications. This was mainly the creams etc tho.

 

[Domino]

Inactive ingredients. Hmm. That had crossed my mind. :-\ We've had one generic work on Mom just fine and then have a lot of trouble when another generic of the same medication is introduced. Filler/binder may be a big problem.

 

[heart]

With generic meclizine, one brand is fine and the other upsets my stomach. I think it is the binder they use. So I avoid that one brand of generic, but that might not be possible with prescription drugs because the pharamcy might switch back and forth between brands and sources.

 

[Climber07]

Generics don't always work as well as the original. If you find a smaller pharmacy and are friendly with the staff they might order a specific generic that works well for you and have it on hand. Especially with the mom and pop places (the type I work at) to compete with larger places like walgreens we offer more services to regular customers like giving someone a better cost than the suggested retail price. Do you have the old packaging or remember what the pill looked like?

 

[swordpath]

I took a generic blood pressure mediciation and it worked for me.

I don't take any medication now but I'll need to get back on it eventually.