Medicamentos genéricos e similares: porque não podem ser intercambiáveis entre si?

Abstract

Access to medicines in Brazil is recognized by the United Nations as one of the five identifiers relevant to progress in ensuring the right to health of the population. The purpose of this study is to explain technically, why generic and similar drugs cannot be interchangeable with each other. In practice, generics and the like are copies of reference medicines, the difference being that generics use the name of the active principle and the like, the trade name. However, since its implementation, generics are obliged to undergo bioequivalence tests, and for similar ones, these tests are only required from the year 2003. In order to guarantee the interchangeability between generic or similar drugs by reference, they must be bioequivalent. Therefore, by increasing the number of generic drugs, it is common for patients to replace it with a generic one or similar, even if this is not legal. This article is a bibliographical study, starting from a literature review in order to acquire familiarity with the problem and to understand its particularities. In view of the results found through a bibliographical investigation, there is no bioequivalence between all generic and similar drugs of the same reference drug.