A Dangerous Drug Problem

I remain a big fan of generic drugs and plan designs which encourage their utilization. There are however situations where generics do not work and can be quite dangerous. Yesterday I saw a client who had a successful lung transplant several years ago and what she had to say was quite alarming. It seems that after several years clients blood work was not quite right. Client was having bloodwork often to monitor and meds were being adjusted. Last week client went to pharmacy where anti-viral and anti rejection medicines were filled with generics. Client noticed some pills seemed heavier than others. Pharmacist agreed and they opened several capsules to find some were completely full and others were just half full. Pharmacist broke a seal on a different container and guess what? Same scenario with varying doses.

Imagine being a transplant recipient and finding yourself in a position where your bloodwork is varying and then discovering your anti rejection and anti viral generic medicines are displaying dosages that vary? That would be the time to ditch the generic. I have never done so in the past but I might also be tempted to see an attorney in this situation.

The generic drugs in question are acyclovir and tacrolimus and for the record the pharmacist found the varying dosage issue with both generic medicines and alerted the manufacturers.