Why are some medications, like arthritis medication, not standardized?

487 views

Why do we rely on random companies to make the medicine instead of being a standard treatment?

In: Other

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because many diseases, like arthritis, vary in severity from patient to patient. There are many subtle variations in arthritis symptoms that are not measurable by tests in a doctors office. Having a variety of treatments to try gives patients a chance to find out what works for them.

Those treatments are “standardized” in the sense that they are mostly checked and approved for safety. Of course, there will always be some (nontoxic) snake oil on the market like CBD cream.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The medicines ARE standardized. They have certain ingredients at certain ratios.

The reason we allow multiple companies to produce them, is so that there isn’t a bottleneck. If one company goes out of business, can’t meet demand, or they have to issue a recall, we have other companies to pick up the slack.

Of course, this doesn’t apply for medications with patents, which only get produced by the owning company.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I’m not sure what you mean by “standard treatment”. Do you mean why do patients get different drugs? Or why multiple companies make the same drug? A drug will initially be made solely by the company that developed it. But when the patent runs out, other companies will be able to make it. However, it will be the same medication no matter who makes it, and the regulatory bodies for drugs (FDA in the US) require that any company making it will have the right drug/amount in each tablet

Anonymous 0 Comments

Can you elaborate a bit? What do you mean when you say “Random companies” and what do you mean when you say “standard treatment”?

Are you imagining that all medicines can be administered in the same way antibiotics or vaccines are, one dose at x mg/kg, and done?