Word: generics
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...Senator Gaylord Nelson. It is just that, he claims, regardless of how much it costs and whether it carries a famous brand name. Nelson goes further: he believes that prescription drugs for serious illnesses should be dispensed, not under a manufacturer's trademark name, but under the "generic" (common chemical) name, which usually carries a lower price tag. Whether generic and brand-name drugs are really medically equivalent has been debated before Nelson's Senate Monopoly Subcommittee for almost two months now. So far, no witness or Senator has been able to provide a flat answer-because none...
...alcohols used in manufacturing, another of 16 hours on corn-steep liquor, and one of 22 hours on city water. The U.S.P. requires none of these. Moreover, Squibb offers its penicillin G in twelve different strengths, dosages and combinations, some of which make no money, while most manufacturers of generic penicillin G make only the one or two most widely prescribed formulations, which are the moneymakers...
Some Do. There is no reason why producers of generic-name drugs cannot make them to the highest brand-name standards if they choose to invest the necessary time and money. Some, but not all of them, do so. Though several of the subcommittee's witnesses so far have tended to support the contention that generic-name drugs are potent and acceptable, they have also admitted that they cannot really sort out what is equal to what in the pullulating pill market. No one, it appears, has run a comprehensive test on an entire family of drugs, such...
...medicine and pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Burack starts from the premise that too many drugs cost too much because they are prescribed and dispensed under brand names, whereas the identical chemicals, meeting the same U.S. Government standards of purity and potency, are available for less under their generic names. Drug by drug, Dr. Burack lists many of the most widely used medications, gives their brand names and lists the prices charged for them. For example, he cites penicillin G, sold by E. R. Squibb & Sons as Pentids at a price to the druggist...
Nonequivalent. Like the lay witnesses, Senator Nelson accepted the claim that a generic-named product, provided it meets Government standards, is exactly the same drug as the brand-name item. Sometimes it is, but not always. Four eminent research physicians in Chicago, headed by famed Anesthesiologist Max S. Sadove, have carefully compared many "generic equivalent" drugs for years and found great differences in the effects on patients. One notable example involved an anesthetic; a cheaper, generic-named form simply did not anesthetize in some cases, and in others the effect wore off too soon. Besides potency and purity, there...