Does Generic Lotrel Make your Blood Boil?

Who doesn't thank the Goddess that generic drugs occupy every nook of the drug index these days; that these options exist for every drug that a drug major does not have a copyright on. Drug makers in countries like India, and some in Europe, take advantage of every drug formulation that the patent expires on after the 20 year protection that the government gives the original creator, and then it is a free-for-all. Take the Swiss Pharma major Novartis and its recent innovation, a drug for high blood pressure called Lotrel. Now this drug is still under patent; but there are all kinds of controversies around the patent, and so, generic Lotrel is available for now; for the price of one real Lotrel, you could buy three of the generic ones. The FDA calls generic drugs some pretty convincing names like bioequivalent or medically and materially identical; now who would want to question something that sounds as impressive as that when it saves you that much money? Even President Obama loves them, and is busy right now trying to clear the way for as much inexpensive generic drugs allowed into the country as possible - to make his health care reform bill possible.

As much as everyone wants to believe that there is nothing wrong that happens when the pharmacist just gives you a no-name generic alternative instead of the real thing, when he runs out of stock on the main drug, doctors and healthcare professionals really are beginning to wonder "Hey!, Are we sure everyone is on the same page here certifying heart-related medicines like generic Lotrel?". There are more and more patient stories showing up on the forums; one says that the popular antidepressant Wellbutrin XL always worked wonderfully for him until his insurance company switched him to the generic called Budeprion XL and not only did his depression return, it was worse than before. And personally, my mother always got along fine on the generic Lotrel for hypertension made by the Indian pharmaceutical major Torrent. But one day it just stopped working well enough, and she kept getting dizzy spells. The doctor first tried raising her dosage, but then thought it would be better if she took a lower dosage, but tried the original Novartis-made Lotrel even if it was three times the price. I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing; if the FDA had approved it, of course it had to be the same, didn't it? That's when I understood what it meant when they say "Some are more equal than the others" or "First among equals".

I only found the truth when I looked up this whole problem on the Internet. All the professional medical bodies in the US, The American Academy of Neurology, the American Medical Association really warn you against generics for significant health conditions. The position of the American Medical Association apparently is that generally speaking, the copycats are not as good as the originals. So what is it that's different between generic Lotrel and Novartis' Lotrel? They haven't really actually done any tests, but the FDA plainly says that it uses some pretty easy-to-pass standards to certify generic drugs. Generic Lotrel for example, has to show that it shows up in the blood at between 80% and 125% of Novartis' Lotrel; if your pharmacist happens to stock one variety of generic Lotrel one day that has 80% blood level concentrations as Novartis Lotrel, and he carries another next week that mixes up 110% in your blood, well, do you think you're in big trouble? So what is the official position these days. Generics are fine if what you have in mind is a relatively simple non-threatening disease. If you have a problem that affects the heart or the brain, you're best off spending what it takes on the genuine article.