Health Ministry debates weighty topic
Posted by Matt Dioguardi on October 18th, 2007
Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare is currently debating through committee the following situation:
Generic drugs can be made by more than one company. Imagine the case where a doctor prescribes a generic drug to a patient. Call it drug X. The prescription specifies generic drug X made by company A. Now say the drug store doesn’t carry generic drug X made by company A, but it does have the exact equivalent generic drug X made by company B. Without asking for the doctor’s permission, should the trained pharmacists be allowed to switch company A’s product for company B’s, given that ingredients are essential equivalent and it’s a generic drug anyway?
If you can’t answer don’t worry, there are bureaucrats specifically trained to be able to handle questions like this. That’s what they are there for, so rest assured they’ll find a satisfactory answer.