Billions of prescriptions for generic drugs are filled in the U.S. annually. The FDA tests only a few dozen of them every year, its own records show, and it has largely dismissed warnings about contaminants, irregularities and other issues.

It’s a fundamental tenet of health care in America: Generic drugs are just as safe and effective as brand-name ones. The only difference is the price.

“The same high quality, strength, purity and stability,” the Food and Drug Administration assured the public years ago as factories started to flood the market with their own, cheaper versions of commonly used drugs, from antibiotics to cancer treatments.

But the agency stakes that promise on a risky gamble.

It doesn’t routinely test generics for quality concerns or to see if they’re working as effectively as brand-name medications. Instead, the agency heavily relies on drug companies, often in countries as far away as India and China, to do their own testing and to report any problems.

Yet the FDA largely dismissed the warnings and has only sporadically tested a sampling of generic drugs, which now account for about 90% of prescriptions in the United States. That means the government can’t always say which ones may be compromised or how often that happens. And patients can’t make informed choices about which drugmakers to depend on.

  • FoxyFerengi@startrek.website
    18·
    2 days ago

    While most of the samples passed, the findings showed that one version of bupropion and one version of metoprolol, dispensed at least tens of thousands of times in 2024 alone, had irregularities that experts say could compromise their effectiveness.

    They found some pills dissolved slower, reducing the amount of medication available in the body. These were from Indian factories that previously failed quality testing but have since been allowed to sell to the US again.

    Edit: propublica only tested three medications from 11 people. It’s a very small sample size, but considering the historical quality control issues its worth a larger analysis

    • thesohoriots@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 days ago

      ProPublica (I believe) also did a massive rundown of all the manufacturers that weren’t up to par but still were allowed to continue manufacturing generics anyways, as you mention. This is just another piece in a much larger issue that they seem to be the only ones really getting at. While generics may technically have the same active ingredient, the other 99% of that pill can make a huge difference.