A 28 year old boy Type 1 diabetic ( in confused state) came to me with skyrocketing sugars in 500 mg\dl since past one year and infections spread all over his body which he wasn't aware of.
Upon asking what he was on for sugars, he told he has been taking this (name of branded) insulin with very high dose regularly, still not controlled
I was like, impossible. I told him to show what he was on.
Then, he confessed, he was on some generic insulin.
I advice him to stop playing with his life and to take really what he was pretending to take (the branded one) in one tenth of the generic dose
He left with plethora of questions in his mind.
After a week he again came back to me
We checked the sugar, this time it's 101 mg\dl.
He thanked and this time left with a smile on his face and self realisation of the mistake.
With generics we don't know how the excipients with the copied molecule would interact among themselves and with the body and finally with the disease state and genetics of individual. A threat to life.
With branded, that is the original molecule and excipient, they have been tested for decades in every which sense before approval and hence the cost.
Invisible events, such as a patient having a higher risk of thromboembolic events, stroke with a low-potency medicine, cannot be seen without a large-scale clinical trial between generics and the original.
Generics are tested against the original through pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, but they are not always tested in diseased states, and the fillers, matrix, and manufacturing process may differ from the original.
And so, is the case with another category (Sasta Nasha) “Branded Generics", they're marketed by small companies with little quality control and safety checks while getting manufactured by unknown.
PS: In India if a Generic medicine could even act at mere 10–15 % of the Branded original molecule, it's approved and some at even lesser unethically.
Generics, cheapeness can cost you with deranged health parameters or new disease
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