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  • Anonymous
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    Post count: 93172

    I work for a well known pharmaceutical company, in which we make the drugs. In the past I worked for a diffirent pharmaceutical company that made brand name and generic products. There are some things you should know.

    After a product is approved by the FDA, it has a life time. I think it may be 7 years, don’t quote me on this. During this time no other company has rights to it. At the end of its lifetime the FDA says that any other company can recreate this product and after its approval, the company can release it to consumer. But that is the catch, RECREATE.

    You see, the brand name company does not give out all the confidential documents. They give the ingredients. It is like cooking. You bake cookies by using the ingredients a neighbor gives you. But, if you don’t have the original recipe, your new cookies will not be the same as that of your neighbors. The bottom line is that the generic products must meet the guidelines, such as potency, but they may be better or worse.

    The process of making the products that we ingest can be relatively simple or they may be intracate. The competitors do not know. The generic companies work throughout the drug’s lifetime to recreate the drug, and depending on the company, they will make a good product.

    The doctors and pharmacists that prescribe products have no idea how these products are made. The pharmaceutical companies send them free samples and by giving them out to the patient, they learn how patients feel about them.

    My advice will always be, stick to a company you’ve used and liked before. If and when a product begins to be made by generic brands, stick with the company that made the brand name, they will make it exactly the same, if and only if you were happy taking the brand name.
    If you are unhappy, with any extreme side effects, notice anything (from chipping to difference in odors) send the company a letter. There is a policy in which they have to answer any complaints by investigation and fixing any problems. Speak and write to the pharmacy. And definately, write to the FDA. The rules are changed by the FDA and they only know about it because we the consumers inform them.

    Remember you can request to have the doctor make out the prescription to have the brand name drug. If you are using generics because they are cheaper, and you are not happy with it, ask the pharmacist to give you a different generic company. There are usually more than one generic company making the same drug.

    Edna – From someone who has a hard time taking medication knowing how bad these drugs can be made.

    Anonymous
    Participant
    Post count: 93172

    THANK YOU SO MUCH, Edna for this wonderful information. It’s from people
    like you with the personal experience in both their personal and work lives that we can get so much information.
    To update you all
    Yesterday, I talked with another pharmacist and he clarified some points
    for me.
    1. Thyrolar and Armour thyroid, while both being older products, are not
    the same drug and have a slightly different formualation.
    2. Thyrolar always needed refrigeration not just recently. I guess my
    mother, in the fifty plus years she has taken this medication,
    was never given such info.
    3. Armour has traditionally not been refreigerated, but he will look in
    to whether that has changed.
    I am still researching whether generics and brand name Armour can be
    made by the same manufacturer, as I find this hard to believe myself.
    There, however may only be one factory making the same medication as it
    is not used much anymore ad there would be little profit in having
    competition in such a small patient market.
    I am also going to write the FDA to officially answer a number of questions
    that I have and mention that I am now having a potency problem with Armour
    and have noticed a possible change in formulation due to odor and crumbling.

    Anonymous
    Participant
    Post count: 93172

    Sorry, I finally made the connection. I was thinking to myself, ‘Who the
    heck is Dr. Wilson!?’ Yes, if you call the Wellness Heatlh and Pharmacy
    asking for sustained release T3, they will assume you are taking it for
    Wilson’s syndrome. The person there told me a little bit about Wilson’s
    syndrome and it is my own personal opinion (and I’m not a doctor) that it
    is complete hogwash. In fact, they have this procedure of scaling up the
    dose of T3 to 65mcg and higher and then scaling down. I would not be
    surprised if those patients suffer permanent damage to their brain’s
    neurotransmitters as a result of such repeated exposure to high levels
    of T3. Again, I am not a doctor and I have no doubt that a few of their
    patients are suffering from a genuine thyroid disorder, but this treatment
    sounds very irresponsible. They appear to be conducting a large-scale
    unapproved medical experiment on humans.

    Feeling Great I’m not on that treatment!

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