Answering The Generic Question About Generic Drugs

OK, bottom line: Are generic drugs as safe and effective as brand-name drugs? The generic answer is "yes". The Scientific American reports that a generic drug contains the same active ingredient, which provides therapeutic benefit, as does the brand-name version. The journal tell us that generic drugs may  vary in bioequivalency, which is the amount of drug that is available in the bloodstream at any point in time, and cites a 2009 FDA study showing that of 2,070 orally administered generic drug products approved by the agency between 1996 to 2007, generics differ in bioequivalency from brand names, on average, by about 3.5 percent. Sciam quotes William Hubbard, a former associate commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), saying that he would readily take a generic if it was prescribed. It also quotes Aaron Kesselheim, a physician and drug policy researcher at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the author of a 2008 study that showed there are no statistically significant therapeutic differences among generic and brand-name heart medications. Says Kesselheim: "For the vast majority of patients, switching is not an issue."

Read more in the Scientific American.