Doctors in the US are prescribing expensive brand-name drugs when cheap
alternatives work just as well. The Food and Drug Administration has written to
doctors’ organisations and state pharmacy officials asking them to consider
using these generic drugs.
Once a drug’s patent has expired, any company with adequate quality control
can make it. But some US states and health insurers want to make it harder to
substitute generic drugs for about 25 drugs that will only work properly in
precise doses. They worry that differences in formulation between brand-name and
generic drugs could affect dosages. The FDA says these fears are unfounded.
