By Wendy J. Meyeroff
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
There can be wallet friendly options for people reeling at the ever-increasing costs of brand name prescription drugs. The trick is knowing what you can substitute and when. It’s not easy.
Using Generics
In the United States, when a manufacturer develops a drug, it receives a patent for a certain number of years. Once the patent expires, other companies can manufacture a generic version. The generic —e.g., metformin instead of Glucophage for diabetes—must have the identical active ingredients as its brand-name counterpart.
Kathy Justice, R.Ph., who manages the pharmacy at Charlestown, an Erickson built and managed community in Catonsville, Md., offers this warning regarding generics: “Someone may be used to an oval, red capsule and the generic is a round, white tablet. I have to make sure they know the difference.”
If several generics are all round and white, Justice works to help people distinguish between them, like putting each in a separate compartment of a seven-day pill holder.
‘Essentially the Same’ Drugs
Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs also have generic versions (e.g., Advil and ibuprofen) but don’t assume the OTC (or its generic) can be exchanged with a brand-name prescription. HMOs are encouraging prescription-to-OTC exchanges with this potentially dangerous phrase,“essentially the same.”
Consider Prilosec and Nexium. Prilosec was the original prescription and now has an OTC variation, and it may be feasible to switch from the prescription to OTC. If your HMO tells you, “We’re not covering Nexium anymore; go buy Prilosec at the drugstore. It’s essentially the same,” you’re being misled, says Matt Narrett, M.D., medical director at Charlestown.