Pharmacist Irina Bulygina revealed the danger of cheap analogs of drugs in an interview with the “360” TV channel.
The specialist noted that one cannot compare a brand with a generic one, since the excipients and binders in them may differ. According to her, these substances are most often developed and tested by the manufacturers themselves.
“When a generic is released into circulation, the so-called bioequivalence or truncated clinical trials are done, because it is not that expensive in terms of money and time,” Bulygina said. Manufacturers simply check that the drug has entered the bloodstream and then excreted from the body after a while, after which the drug is considered to be working. However, no therapeutic equivalence to the original drug is carried out, the specialist emphasized.
Bulygina added that generics can be taken, for example, for headaches, but for chronic diseases it is better to use original drugs. Analogs can lead to side effects, she said.
Earlier, scientists at the Yale University School of Medicine in the USA found that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs during COVID-19 are dangerous and can interfere with the fight of the immune system against coronavirus.