Word: generics
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Sandinistas came in," he said. "They overthrew Somoza, killed him and overthrew him. Killed him, threw him out." In fact, ex-Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle was assassinated in Paraguay after a year in exile. When reporters challenged Bush, the Vice President said he had meant Sandinistas in a "generic" sense...
...which has three top-selling drugs that lose their patents this year, has been sponsoring a ten-city lecture tour by Paul Doering, an associate professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Florida. At pharmacists' meetings and in television appearances, Doering has been spreading the word that generic drugs may not be as good as brand-name products. Says he: "I believe that drugs are far too important to be considered just another commodity...
Doering argues that some generic drugs do not dissolve as fast or as completely in the intestine as do brand-name pills. That could be dangerous for patients taking drugs for life-threatening diseases. The FDA, though, disagrees with Doering. Says Dr. Peter Rheinstein, the agency's director of drug standards: "There are no more safety problems with FDA-approved generic drugs than with brand-name medications...
...states have passed laws that allow pharmacists to substitute a generic equivalent for a brand-name prescription unless the doctor specifically forbids it. In Florida, druggists are required to tell customers how much they will save by using generic products. To counteract these laws, the brand-name companies encourage doctors to write "dispense as written" or "no substitution" on their prescriptions. In addition, the big firms try to give their pills distinctive shapes and trademarks. Hoffmann-La Roche's Valium tranquilizer tablets, for example, have a V carved in the center. The company hopes that when Valium...
...brand-name companies face a broad-based movement toward generics. Some 26 states mandate the use of generic drugs, whenever possible, in Medicaid programs. Several insurance companies, including Aetna, Metropolitan, Prudential and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, have notified health-care policyholders that they will be reimbursed for 100% of the cost of generic drugs but only 80% of the price of brand-name pills. Moreover, many drugstore chains are pushing low-priced generics. Walgreens, with 947 outlets in 30 states and Puerto Rico, says that when one of its pharmacists receives a prescription marked "no substitution," he is to call...