Generics vs Name-band Drugs

Here's the link to the podcast: http://sciencefriday.com/segment/09/12/2014/the-science-of-sameness-developing-generic-medications.html

Jack if you want to do research you will find that there are government regulations in many areas that pharmacies are now required to give out generics over name brand meds. I have used both and with all generics they do work just like the name brand. I know a group of neurologists that work in drug studies and they do test generics as well as name brand. I was having a problem because Keppra was a name brand and the insurance was changed instead ofa &50. co pay it was changed to a %age deductable. In doing that change the 50 bucks changes to 985 bucks a month. The generic came out and I wanted to try it. Doc wanted to see if it would work like the regular keppra. I was given a diary to use and had to go back in 1 month. I had it filled and went back. He looked at th diary since I was to write down anything that was different .I stopped him after he had turned to the 5th page. I told him that it worked fine and nothing was different that I could tell. It controlled my seizures just like Keppra. By doing that he has been able to prescribe it to other patients who couldn't afford name brand keppra. With most of the medications I have used in the 50+ years I have been dealing and living with epilepsy I have used generic. Because of the regulations if you want to use name brand only then the prescripion needs to say NAME BRAND ONLY. The government has now told pharmacies that if a generic is available they have to use it over name brand so all prescriptions must say which medication manufracturer they want used name brand or generic.

for example at http://www.epilepsy.com/information/professionals/diagnosis-treatment/therapeutic-and-generic-substitutions/article-generichere are a few paragraphs...Issues for Generics Specific to EpilepsyThe characteristics of epilepsy and the potential serious ramifications of therapy failure must be considered. Epilepsy is not like other medical conditions, such as elevated cholesterol, because of the seriousness of seizure events. Epilepsy patients are particularly vulnerable to the disadvantages of generic products, since slight deviations in the serum concentrations of AEDs can be the difference between keeping a patient seizure free and the occurrence of a breakthrough seizure. A breakthrough seizure after a long remission can have significant psychosocial and physical consequences for the epilepsy patient in areas of life such as employment and driving, and could lead to injury. Antiepileptic drugs have a high potential for central nervous system-related adverse events. This is usually related to the serum concentration of the drug. Some AEDs have narrow a therapeutic index, which is defined by the FDA as less than a two-fold difference between the minimum toxic concentration and the minimum effective concentration. Carbamazepine, phenytoin, and sodium valproate in particular have narrow therapeutic indices. Individual patients may have an even narrower difference between efficacy and toxicity. The rate and extent of absorption or bioavailability often differs between different generic versions of branded products, and each differs from the branded formulation itself. Changes in the bioavailability of an AED in a particular patient can have serious effects for that patient. For example, a slight increase in phenytoin bioavailability can lead to a marked increase in serum level and thus to adverse effects, especially when the level is more than 15/mg/L. 3