They also have notoriously poor quality assurance/control and very limited regulatory oversight. Just as greedy as American pharma only they turn their profits by cutting corners. Famous case study outlined here: https://www.amazon.com/Bottle-Lies-Inside-Story-Generic/dp/0062338781
In THEORY she is right, but as proved countless, countless times, the generic pharma market has failed and committed outright fraud and bribery without remorse
Great investigative journalism book on this topic: https://www.amazon.com/Bottle-Lies-Inside-Story-Generic/dp/0062338781
It’s a story of massive fraud within the generic drug industry, especially focusing on international manufacturing. Pretty shocking, and reads like a thriller of sorts. Link here
Pharmacist here: Absolutely there is a difference between brand and generic, and between generic manufacturers. Some generics are rebranded brand-name tablets/capsules.
If you're really nice to your local pharmacist, she might clue you in to the better ones and place special orders requiring overrides to obtain them for you. (If your insurance will allow the better ones since they’re more expensive: example, Aurobindo venlafaxine ER 150mg capsule #30 was $9.00 cash price, Teva's was >$300.)
If you want the exposé: Bottle of Lies by Katherine Eban
You will never think of the FDA the same way again.
https://www.amazon.com/Bottle-Lies-Inside-Story-Generic/dp/0062338781/ref=nodl_#
Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom Generics, through reverse-engineering, are produced to act like the parent, brand drugs from which they are derived. They are not identical to these, but are meant to be bio-equivalent.
Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom Generics, through reverse-engineering, are produced to act like the parent, brand drugs from which they are derived. They are not identical to these, but are meant to be bio-equivalent.
Funny you should say that. If there ever was a fake pharma promoted book. This is it. It’s blatantly a lie meant to scare Americans into paying top dollar for drugs when genetics are safe.
The book describes a situation that is simply not a thing in any other country. All of EU fully supports (and manufactures) safe, cheap generic drugs.
This book got so many awards and praise from the media. It rightly highlights mistakes in generic manufacturing but is oddly silent on the mistakes by the core of the pharma industry
“Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom” https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0062338781/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_1lslFbX0BN7QG
Allow me to suggest you this book https://www.amazon.com/Bottle-Lies-Inside-Story-Generic/dp/0062338781
All a generic has to prove is that it has the same active ingredient, it does not to be proven for efficacy, and they spend about as much money on quality control as you have in your back pocket. Any idiot who works over in r/pharmacy (they banned me for pointing all this stuff out) will tell you it has to do with binders and fillers, but that's a half-truth and it doesn't explain the real problem. Generics revolve around guesswork, the assumption that it'll probably be the same thing. Rather than fix the overpriced drug industry in the usa, the fda just puts a band-aid over it by supporting generics. But generics can hurt more than they can help. Ask any grandparent about their experience and they'll give you an ear full.
I only mention this because every psych med I've taken was made by questionable companies, breckenridge and greenstone are the only two good ones that I know of (greenstone is just pfizer with a different label, and yes they do make xanax and xanax xr). Greenstone used to make zoloft, but it was sporadically discontinued and finally altogether. I never had a chance to try it. I've been through paxil, zoloft, wellbutrin, lexapro..Probably a few others. But this is the only one that's actually working well.
As for benzos, everybody has their own fit. For example: Ativan was very weak (1.5mg wore off within an hour or two), valium was nice but tolerance developed within a day, and restoril felt gross. Never tried xanax because of abuse potential, I don't want to get high, I just want to feel better. But, xanax xr fixes that issue and I'm just waiting out the clock until I can get a script for it. Every local pharmacy I called doesn't carry it, need to order it online. Klonopin is the only one that works well, and I can vouch for solco's generic because it used to be qualitest before they bought them out. Teva is not the same teva, at one time their klonopin was the gold standard but it was discontinued then eventually brought back some number of years later. I tried it a while ago and it doesn't feel like the old teva, others have reported the same.
Accord is the worst brand. I have tried four of their drugs and all had adverse effects, that can't be a coincidence. Their wellbutrin xl turned me into the tasmanian devil for about a day, what a mess. If you do decide to try wellbutrin, use the SR version, much safer.
The book I was referring to is right here.
Here’s my copy pasta for comments like this one:
The FDA allows for the bioavailability of a generic drug to vary from a minimum of 80% to a maximum of 125% from the original brand formulation. With such a large allowed variability, the simple act of refilling your prescription could fuck up your protocol’s precision and consistency across time.
In additional to this, generic drug manufacturers have an atrocious track record of data manipulation and quality control catastrophes.
On generic, my labs were all over the place on the same dosage and injection frequency. 700, 1000, 1300, 550. It was infuriating. Now my levels never waver by more than 50ng/dL.
If you want a good read on this subject, I recommend Bottle of Lies. It’s a quality piece of investigative journalism.
Some generics are better than others, but nothing beats the quality of Pfizer Depot-Testosterone. Switching to brand name test was the best thing I’ve done for my quality of life since getting on TRT.
This is incorrect.
The FDA allows for the bioavailability of a generic drug to vary from a minimum of 80% to a maximum of 125% from the original brand formulation. With such a large allowed variability, the simple act of refilling your prescription could fuck up your protocol’s precision and consistency across time.
In additional to this, generic drug manufacturers have an atrocious track record of data manipulation and quality control catastrophes.
On generic, my labs were all over the place on the same dosage and injection frequency. 700, 1000, 1300, 550. It was infuriating. Now my levels never waver by more than 50ng/dL.
If you want a good read on this subject, I recommend Bottle of Lies. It’s a quality piece of investigative journalism.
I would suggest the book Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062338781/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_62ZPSF193172E7JQ2P9H
I used to always think this. Read the book “Bottle of Lies” - there has been massive, massive fraud in the generic industry from india and china particularly which fills the usa. Drugs that cause cancer. Drugs that are basically do nothing.
Listen to this recent podcast with Peter Attia and Katherine Eban and prepare to truly hate humanity. You’ll also start questioning every generic you sell.
https://peterattiamd.com/katherineeban/
https://smile.amazon.com/Bottle-Lies-Inside-Story-Generic/dp/0062338781