Re: Generic pills ...

Jan 31, 2020 Last reply: 6 years ago 22 Replies

Yes.

I suspect there are many reasons for medics not doing Yellow Crads. Including time, effort, possibility of some sort of comeback, unwillingness to take a patient's word for what they experienced.

The point they seem to miss is that the MHRA get many reports and they rarely, if ever, act on just one.

It is as if they feel personally responsible for the report - rather than a responsibility to this and all other patients to make reports.

The main purpose of the yellow card scheme is detecting new side effects, either in new drugs, or rare ones in established drugs. There is no great point in reporting well-established side effects because, as you say, it is in no sense a quantitative system. Formal trials or post-marketing surveillance are needed to make any estimate of the frequency of side effects.

Also, drug interactions. The number of drug interactions for the medicines I care about has increased hugely over the years. Although some will have been from research, and from development of other medicines, some are definitely from Yellow Card reports (and similar in other countries - the information does eventually flow).

But one of the most significant issues I see is intolerance of some of the available products. A product only launched in 2017 and just being another generic, seems to cause issues in a huge proportion of those who try it. Not a side effect of the active ingredient.

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