PharmaSentry :: Alternate drugs not always identical [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

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Alternate drugs not always identical [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) 25-Jun-2010
June 25--The seizures are less frequent for Melissa Linz since her radical brain surgery in December, when 3 inches of gray mater were removed from her skull. But the Shaler woman is convinced she might not have needed that surgery in the first place if her anti-seizure medication hadn't been changed by her health insurance company.

Key Concepts
• apos
• medications
• patients
• health insurance
• prescriptions
• Linz
• seizures
• drugs
• brand-name
• medicines
• substitutes
• consumers
• physicians
• absorption
• protocols

Summary

•	June 25--The seizures are less frequent for Melissa Linz since her radical brain surgery in December, when 3 inches of gray mater were removed from her skull.
•	But the Shaler woman is convinced she might not have needed that surgery in the first place if her anti-seizure medication hadn't been changed by her health insurance company.
•	She, along with millions of other patients and policyholders each year, found herself the unwilling casualty of prescription switching -- a doctor prescribes one medicine, but the government or a health insurer wants you to use another, usually a generic brand, because it's cheaper.
•	And usually, that's a good idea.
•	Using the cheaper medicine tempers the growth of pharmaceutical expenses across the system, saving American consumers tens of millions of dollars a year.
•	It's why most health plans, both private and government-run, have "preferred" drug lists and specific formularies detailing what drugs will be covered by which policies under which circumstances.
•	And it's why the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act was approved by Congress in 1984 to make generics more widely available to U.S. consumers.
•	Often, the generic substitute is chemically indistinguishable from the prescribed brand-name drug.