Generic Drugs Show the Same Efficiency As the Original Drugs Do

Italian scientists have found out that generic drugs cure patients as well as the original drugs. In one of the clinics in Milan, the effect of the original drugs and generics was compared in two groups: the first group, where more than 400 people had taken  lamivudine, zidovudine/lamivudine or efavirenz, switched to generic drugs, the second group continued taking the original medicines. In both groups, the average CD4 cell count was 700 cells, patients were the same age and had the same physical conditions.

As a result, after 15 months of observation of both groups, recurrent viremia (increased viral load after initial decline) appeared twice as often in the group of patients taking the original drugs. 27% of the patients requested the change of the treatment regimen from the first group, and 29% of the participants taking the original drugs. Participants in both control groups motivated the change of the treatment regimen with the side effects of the drugs.

“In this observational study we compared patients switched to generic antiretrovirals with a matched population who continued taking branded drugs and we did not find evidence of reduced efficacy or increased toxicity related to switch from branded to generic antiretroviral drugs,”  - explained the authors of the study.