Generics and similars
Generics, similar drugs, medicine quality and the relationship of trust between doctor, patient and pharmacy.
Brazil's Generics Law dates from 1999. In 2004, five years later, the market still lived with confusion among three categories: the reference drug, the generic (with proven bioequivalence and no brand) and the "similar" (with its own brand, not yet subject to the equivalence testing that would come in 2014). Pedro wrote to clear up that confusion at the pharmacy counter.
His concern was the quality of what the patient took and the trust that sustains the relationship among doctor, patient and pharmacist. Prescribing is one responsibility; substituting a prescription, another.
This is the first of two texts on the subject in the same year, followed by "Doctor: don't let the pharmacy swap your prescription". Read together, they show a doctor attentive to what happened after the patient left the consultation.
This article is part of the historical archive of Pedro Moretti Guedes. It should be read as a document of its time: Medicine, pharmacology and health recommendations have changed since publication.
The original clipping is preserved by the family and will be published here once the scan can be checked against the original.