DIfference in brands?

[mum83]

I usually get my prescription at Boots, which supply a brand called Teva and the other day, because I was in a hurry, I went to the closest pharmacy (Lloyds) and they gave me a completely different brand of Mirt. made by Mere-something. I know they *should* be the same but has anyone found that not to be the case?

[Pipkin]

Hi there,

There are quite a few posts on here about this for other meds. The active ingredients are the same but there may be small differences in the binding ingredients. When this has happened to me, I have never noticed any difference. Some people say they notice but they're either more sensitive than me or it's psychosomatic.

Pip x

[bignik]

no issues here with different brands although I do prefer the oral dispersable mirtazipine as sends me to sleep quicker than the solid capsule type ones

[mum83]

I am so angry with myself for going to Lloyds, but you know how it is when you're in a hurry. I had my young daughter with me and we had to get back to pick up my eldest from school and it didn't even enter my mind that pharmacies might carry different brands. Do you think I can take it back? I'm really upset about this!

[bignik]

you can try but I think maybe issues as like said they are more or less the same as far as the actualdrug is concerned.

[Tish]

If the pharmacy won't take it back, at least they might put your mind at rest x

[Pipkin]

Hi there,

As I said, I'd be very surprised indeed if you notice a difference. Try not to worry about it (easy to say, I know) and take them as normal. You'll be fine.

Pip xx

[Monostich]

There really isn't any difference.

[eight days a week]

The first part of Pipkin's first post is right, and it can make a huge difference to some people, depending on the meds in question. Chemically the active ingredient may be identical (in fact I'm sure it is) but there's a lot more to it than that.

I've read a huge amount on forums about people having wildly different reactions to different brands of the same medicines. It's worrying that the drug companies are allowed to get away with it, but then I suppose money (their billions in profits which they bribe/brainwash the medical profession with) talks.

I just try to stick to the same brand of everything I'm on.

[haz]

The first part of Pipkin's first post is right, and it can make a huge difference to some people, depending on the meds in question. Chemically the active ingredient may be identical (in fact I'm sure it is) but there's a lot more to it than that.

I've read a huge amount on forums about people having wildly different reactions to different brands of the same medicines. It's worrying that the drug companies are allowed to get away with it, but then I suppose money (their billions in profits which they bribe/brainwash the medical profession with) talks.

I just try to stick to the same brand of everything I'm on.

Couldn't agree more!

As I said on another post, I had to fill out a form to the "Yellow Card Scheme" due to problems with different generic brands of Sertraline. My GP now makes my prescription out for Lustral.

[Alabasterlyn]

I am terrible when my meds change brands and I use the same pharmacist all the time and have explained to him at length that I need to have the same brands all the time. However a few times the companies making the meds have stopped manufacturing the ones I take so I've had no choice but to change to a different brand. I do get myself quite worked up about it and last time they changed I still had some left of the other brand so I mixed them up so that if there was any difference it wouldn't be so noticeable.

I have no idea what the law is in the UK for the active ingredients in drugs but I have been told by friends in the USA that it's quite legal there for the active ingredients in drugs to be up to 20% different from brand to brand. I find that quite worrying and know a number of people who pay out extra money to pay for a more expensive brand rather than going for a generic which they aren't sure about.

[haz]

I am terrible when my meds change brands and I use the same pharmacist all the time and have explained to him at length that I need to have the same brands all the time. However a few times the companies making the meds have stopped manufacturing the ones I take so I've had no choice but to change to a different brand. I do get myself quite worked up about it and last time they changed I still had some left of the other brand so I mixed them up so that if there was any difference it wouldn't be so noticeable.

I have no idea what the law is in the UK for the active ingredients in drugs but I have been told by friends in the USA that it's quite legal there for the active ingredients in drugs to be up to 20% different from brand to brand. I find that quite worrying and know a number of people who pay out extra money to pay for a more expensive brand rather than going for a generic which they aren't sure about.

What meds are you on? Perhaps if you explained things to your GP they might write your prescription out for the branded name of the drug.

Although, my prescription is for Lustral I sometimes find it difficult to get as not all chemists stock it. I usually have to go to Boots and they don't always have it either. Since prescriptions became free for everyone in Scotland I've found that more and more chemists are using cheaper generic brands.

Regards.
Haz.

[eight days a week]

I have no idea what the law is in the UK for the active ingredients in drugs but I have been told by friends in the USA that it's quite legal there for the active ingredients in drugs to be up to 20% different from brand to brand. I find that quite worrying and know a number of people who pay out extra money to pay for a more expensive brand rather than going for a generic which they aren't sure about.

Can you clarify what you mean? A particular chemical is a particular chemical - you cannot sell any medicine that is 20% 'wrong' - because it's not then the same medicine, it's something completely different. I think you must mean the fillers/binding (??) which are not active ingredients.

However, I've seen enough posts from people to absolutely convince me that those things, or perhaps the way they were manufactured or the ingredients they were manufactured from, affect the results.

But chemically the active ingredient is the same. It has to be, both legally and for the med to have any chance of working.

[mikewales]

I made the same point on a similar post about this. One company invents a new drug, and the active ingredients are made to a very specific formula, this is what is tested and passed as being OK to use.

When their license runs out, other companies can make the same drug ( which is why you get different brands of the same meds ) but they make them to the same formula as the original. They cant change things or amounts as they would be breaking the license conditions, and the drug also wouldnt then be legal to be sold as it wouldnt be the same one as was originall tested.

I think all of it is in our minds, we get used to one brand that works for us, then if we get something different we worry it wont be the same, and the anxiety causes the side effects

[Alabasterlyn]

What meds are you on? Perhaps if you explained things to your GP they might write your prescription out for the branded name of the drug.

Although, my prescription is for Lustral I sometimes find it difficult to get as not all chemists stock it. I usually have to go to Boots and they don't always have it either. Since prescriptions became free for everyone in Scotland I've found that more and more chemists are using cheaper generic brands.

Regards.
Haz.

I take Chlordiazepoxide (brand name Librium) and Moclobemide (brand name Manerix) but both have changed many times over the years and I know that Roche no longer make Librium and I'm not sure that they make Manerix now either, least that is what my pharmacist has told me. As both are not drugs that are used a lot I guess it's harder to find a constant supplier of these meds.

On googling FDA rules I did find this on the General Pharmaceutical Associations website which seems to imply what I was told is in fact wrong. Which begs the question why are all these people I know so adamant that they need to pay extra for their branded meds?

There is a frequent misstatement regarding the bioequivalence of generic drugs, which asserts that blood levels of the active ingredient in generic drugs may vary from minus 20% to plus 25% compared to the brand. This simply is not true and any generic with a difference that dramatic would never be approved by the FDA. The 20% to 25% margin is one part of a complex statistical calculation used to help measure the bioequivalence. In no way does it represent the actual difference in the amount of active ingredient a patient’s bloodstream, which FDA has determined is typically less than 4% between generic and brand or between two different batches of a brand drug.

[haz]

I made the same point on a similar post about this. One company invents a new drug, and the active ingredients are made to a very specific formula, this is what is tested and passed as being OK to use.

When their license runs out, other companies can make the same drug ( which is why you get different brands of the same meds ) but they make them to the same formula as the original. They cant change things or amounts as they would be breaking the license conditions, and the drug also wouldnt then be legal to be sold as it wouldnt be the same one as was originall tested.

I think all of it is in our minds, we get used to one brand that works for us, then if we get something different we worry it wont be the same, and the anxiety causes the side effects

Surely a BLUE Sertraline (as opposed to the white ones I was taking before) HAS to contain, at the very least, a colouring additive. Maybe it was this "additive" that caused me to feel more nauseous?

I was recently put on esomeprazole, which as I fas as I am aware is supposed to be still under patent and the brand name is Nexim. My first prescription was imported from Italy (named Esopral). The Italian writing has been covered over with stickers in English saying Nexim?? I didn't collect the prescription myself or I would have questioned this.

Maybe the regulations regarding the manufacturing of drugs varies from country to country:shrug: