It's expensive in the UK too if you buy a brand name painkiller. It's depressing that they can still sell them when the identical generic medication is next to them on the shelf and is 1/10 of the price.
You may feel better about this if you take some Tylenol ;-)
I don't see how there's anything wrong with selling brand-name drugs next to generics. In fact people that believe brand name drugs are more effective will have a better response to the more expensive drug because of the placebo effect. If anything, they're getting a better response to the same dose of the same drug than the rest of us plebs that know better than to pay a multiple of the cost of the generic.
Something like ADHD medication can make a difference. One of the most difficult months I've had has been a month where I tried the generic and the side effects were way worse than the brand name at same dosage.
But in my mind the generics are just as good as name brand, albeit sometimes different. I guess I'd be just as likely to react poorly to the inactive ingredients in the name brand and might find a generic better in some cases.
In addition, some of the details of the chemicals (such as I guess the angles of the molecules) may be different, because the generic manufacturer imperfectly reverse engineers the process used to make the drug.
Clinical trials to validate the generic are less strict.
The moral, for me, is to be very cautious with generics. I believe most of them are fine (I would never pay full price for Tylenol :), but the more critical the medication is to me, the more research I will do on the generic.
The FDA recently pulled a 300mg generic bupropion generic because the extended release formation produced nowhere near what the branded medication did.
Most generics are equivalent to the branded medication, but there are exceptions out there.
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/12/0...
if so, you're a liar. the generic patches undergo thousands of tests before a doctor ever has one prescribed.
sorry to burst your anecdotal evidence bubble. but you are fabricating things.
'Anecdotal evidence bubbles' are fascinating. Try posting links to research about the placebo effect instead of resorting to name calling.
Care to explain why?
I buy Tylenol branded acetaminophen. Granted, I only buy one bottle every three years or so, but I'm perfectly fine spending a few dollars more. While acetaminophen is acetaminophen, when I buy Tylenol, I'm buying into their quality control and the experience that has come with that company, over many years. It's worth a few dollars to me to make sure that I'm getting what I'm buying and nothing more.
Do explain how brand loyalty is "embarrassing" to humanity.
Medicine is a relatively good place for paranoia though, and for feeling safe. Most brand loyalty is even sillier. Don't get me started about designer clothing.
This makes no sense to me. If I have a good experience with a company, then any subsequent experience is far more likely to be good than a random selection?
The entire point behind brands is consistent experience.
Brand loyalty is broader and can potentially be justified.