Eli5: what is the difference between a generic drug to the original drug, and why do some doctors will swear by the original drug?
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There has been a massive scandal here in NZ because of a change to generic anti-epilepsy medication.
My wife is epileptic and on lamotrigine, she used to take Lamictal, but there was a national change to only fund the generic Logem. Since then, numerous people who had controlled their seizure activity had breakthrough seizures. My wife has been lucky in that she has only had aura activity, not full seizures, but she hadn’t had any for years prior to the change.
There have been six deaths from seizures of people who were forced to change medications. The chief coroner found that it couldn’t be proven that the change was the cause but there is strong circumstantial evidence. Groups like Epilepsy NZ and Medsafe have been strongly opposed to the change because of the evidence that even a slight change in dose or absorption rate can cause sudden death in people with epilepsy.
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