[e-drug] Medical doctors & belief in brand names (6)

["James B. Russo" <JBRusso@aol.com>]

E-DRUG:Medical doctors & belief in brand names (6)
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The utility or foolishness of brand names in prescribing has been debated  
since the 1950s, at least in the U.S,  Many products have brand names  of 
course, and those names help distinguish one product from another quite  
specifically.  Thus we may set out to buy a television (generic) and  because of what we've heard or experienced about a particular firm, we  may give one trademark (SONY) the inside track.  Of course our  final choice is likely to involved a review of various  where the drug  lobby had pushed through legislation, state after state, requiring every Rx for,  say, Pentids be filled with the Squibb name.  At the time, it seemed that  the laws were mostly anticompetitive in effect, through there were the  occasional reports of grungy garage laboratories where those shadowy generics  emerged almost like counter band rum brought in by speedboats from  Noriega-land.
 
prohibiting pharmacists filling a scrip for "Darvon" provide rospoxhemine.  
At the time, For me, reliance on generic terminology by  prescribers requires an assumption that every formulation of the needed drug is  interchangeable with every other.  That assumption requires a massive leap  of faith in a world where the existence of uniform cross-national good  manufacturing practices are far from certain.  Add the increased  incidence of flat-out counterfeiting, and confidence that every formulation of,  say, amoxicillin, is the equal of all others requires a level of faith I'm not  willing to grant. 
 
James B.  Russo
146 Koenig Rd.
Bernville, PA 19506 
USA
jbrusso@aol.com
610  488 9060 
484 269 6470 (mobile)