COMPARISON BETWEEN GENERIC DRUGS AND BRAND NAME DRUGS FROM BIOEQUIVALENCE AND THERMOEQUIVALENCE PROSPECTIVE

Mosab Arafat, Zahaa Ahmed, Osama Arafat
2017 International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences  
The belief that generic drugs are inferior to brand name drugs has been always under debate. Especially since the price of generic drugs is generally far cheaper than brand-name drugs. Although, this is because of waiving the preclinical studies and clinical trials for the generic drug, the quality, and purity of materials used for generic drug preparation is still arguable. Thus, the objective of this overview was to find out the tolerable deviations between generic and brand name drugs which
more » ... hould not alter the pharmacology. Using inactive additives in the generic drug different than in the brand name drug, such as binders, glidants, diluents, anti-adherents, disintegrants or polymer carrier material and filler should not change the drug bioavailability and pharmacokinetic parameters as long as both products using the identical active ingredient(s) in equivalent amounts. Even if both drug products are bioequivalent to each other in terms of active ingredient, they are not in terms of inactive ingredients. Hence, the probability of unexpected adverse drug reaction and allergies from the generic formulation are possible, especially, when people react sensitive toward specific component. Therefore, the occasional negative response occurring upon the switch from brand-name drug to the generic drug can be attributed to intra-and inter-patient variations toward inactive ingredients. Variations toward inactive ingredients can be obtained experimentally by utilizing a proper thermoanalytical technique. As a result, thermoequivalence of generic drugs to brand name drugs can be determined based on thermal information obtained from both products. In conclusion, thermoequivalence study can be a useful tool to demonstrate any possible variation between the inactive ingredients of both products.
doi:10.22159/ijpps.2017v9i6.18735 fatcat:niy5tno4jff7bcjpwpojrvipz4