A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME DOES NOT SMELL AS SWEET

I RECENTLY found out Canadians call an E.R. an Emerg. Moreover, they put air pockets in their chocolate so they can stay thinner than their southern neighbors. You can travel to Europe and go potty in the water closet (WC); head to the beach in Australia, you put your thongs on your feet and, should you feel ill, buy meds at the chemist. See a pattern here? These are all different names for essentially the same thing.

We also can find name brands tinkered to resemble the O.G. In Vancouver, you could have gone to Pirate Joes, a store that wants you to think you are in a Trader Joe’s. A few more things: Hydrox are not Oreos, Mountain Lightening is not Mountain Dew — and, for all the servers of the world, Pepsi is not Coca-Cola!

Here at home, walk down any grocery store cereal aisle and you will see the likes of Sgt. Crunchy, After-Life, CoCo Puffed and Apple Jill’s! They all claim to provide the same empty calories that their name-brand counterparts supply, but cheaper. Sound familiar? The same process we see in our optometric lanes plagues the grocery store lanes.

GENERALLY THE SAME?

Generics are not all the same. Generics may claim to be your friend, but when you order a Diet Dr. Pepper — which, incidentally, you cannot get in Canada — and the server gives you a can of Diet Mr. Pibb (“Excuse me I did not order said unfamiliar, kind-of-like-the-original tasting DP!”), it is not acceptable.

My parents tried the substitution game all the time when we were kids. A pair of Levi’s 501s was easily replaced with Sears Tough-skins; Kleenex was oftentimes substituted with facial tissue, which also doubled as a skin exfoliant and a 40-grit piece of sand paper. My parents had no problem replacing a brand item with a generic substitute when said item did not have an active ingredient.

The term “generic” is synonymous with general, common or non-specific and yet, to a consumer, this word means “same as.” We, as clinicians, actually help to perpetuate this generic definition of generic medications, by telling our patients they are getting the same thing.

Generic medications do not go through the same rigorous testing that name-brand medications must go through. Think about that for a minute. Would you fly an airline that had a pilot who was an aviation driver, same as a pilot, but didn’t need to go through the same training? How about oral surgery from a toothist, almost a dentist but, well not. You smell what I am passing here? The active ingredient may be the same in our generic medications, but that does not make the vehicle the same, the efficacy the same or the manufacturing the same. The cost of the prescription is superfluous if the medication takes longer or doesn’t work the same!

LIVE AND LEARN

As kids, we most likely didn’t discern that Smarties weren’t M&M’s because both were sugary treats, and that was good enough. However, as adults we can discern the difference of a Daily Chef Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup from the Reese’s peanut butter cup. Our patients don’t get the satisfaction of tasting the difference, we need to tell them: Generic is not always the best option. OM

DR. BLOOMENSTEIN practices at Schwartz Laser Eye Center in Scottsdale, Ariz. He is a founding member of the Optometric Council on Refractive Technology. He is a speaker and advisory board member for: Akorn, Allergan, Bausch + Lomb, J&J, OcuSoft, and TearLab. Email him at mbloomenstein@gmail.com.