Just sent this to People’s Pharmacy – in response to a report that people were landing up in hospital as a result of taking generic metoprolol from India. What do you think?
I am a physician visiting a friend in Zimbabwe who is pretty sick with myeloma and needing a lot of medicines. But the economy here is in a shambles and people can't afford the care they need very often - in particular high priced medicines. Our friend is liable to die just from running out of money.
So the other side of your knocking generics as being unreliable is the outrageous behavior of both name brand and generic drug manufacturers in jacking up prices, way beyond what a lot of Americans can afford - let alone the third world.
I agree that a better vetting system by the FDA, and improved manufacturing standards would be the ideal solution. But the Indian generic drug manufacturers do help a lot of people in other countries afford medicines they otherwise couldn't.
Go to People's Pharmacy (always a good resource for information to help you manage your own healthcare - even if they're not too enamored with the FDA).
And, http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2008/03/17/new-report-comp/ (which leads you to the Consumer Labs report on this - but you have to pay to see the whole report)
