Clinical Pharmacology & Biopharmaceutics
Open Access

Abstract

Drug companies and physicians have a history of working together in order to distribute pharmaceuticals to patients. Informing physicians, pharmacist, and pharmaceutical companies of patterns in these relationships and how they have affected doctor’s opinions of the industry may help pharmacists and big pharmacies better scale their methods to benefit both patient and product. Clients may be able to use this information to better evaluate the decisions of both their physicians and pharmacists. By surveying and questioning medics about their decisions regarding generic and brand name drugs, and their perceived relationship with pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies, one may able to determine how doctors choose treatments. Generic drugs are the most preferred drug prescription given to patients in need of health care. Standard drugs are defined as drug products that are comparable to a brand/ reference listed drug product in dosage form, strength, quality and performance characteristics, and intended use. Non-name brand drugs have a cheaper price that affects the client’s choice of drug. These drugs are cheaper because the company that distributes them does not have to go through all the marketing to get this drug popular. The generic drug is a copy of the brand drug whose patent expires ten years after it is released to clients. Name brand drugs are drugs made by the industries that are usually advertised and are more expensive than generic brands. Brand name industries state that the generic version of their drug is not safe and is less effective. This statement has no research and data to back it up; generics have always been just as effective as the name brands. Generics are available only after the patent expires on the brand name drug. According to Aaron S Kesselheim and others, generic drugs are chemically equivalent to their brand-name counterparts in terms of active ingredients, but may differ visually, such as the pill color or shape and the specific manufacturing process. An example of a generic drug would be metformin, used mostly by patients with type II diabetes. Metformin is medication taken by the mouth that lowers blood glucose by manipulating the body’s sensitivity to insulin.

Biography

Dori Scwartz is a student at Oxbridge Academy of the Palm Beaches and has been working on a research since two years. This research includes interviews to doctors about the current issue of generic vs. brand name drugs and the influence of drug companies on the doctors’ preference of prescription.

Email: dscwartz@oapb.org