Differing names for the same medicaments

Health Care & Carte Vitale
1

For quite some time I have been complaining about pills which are essentially the same but have different manufacturer names. I simply cannot understand why governments do not consider this dangerous.

Case in point today. I went to the pharmacie as usual on a Monday to top up the ones I will be short of next Monday. An argument followed.

Almost 25 years ago I had a serious problem with reflux and was given a drug called Pariet which said it was gastro-resistant. No problem since and various doctors have always renewed the prescription. A couple of years ago, after my heart attack I began to receive a whole host of other stuff and by this time Pariet wasn’t always the name on the packet. Both Rabeprazole and Pantoprazole were given to me by the pharmacie staff. I gave up asking if this was the same stuff as always the answer was yes.

To make things easier at home I clip open each box so they fit nicely in one bag. This means that after I do this from time to time different named pills reside in the same box, and today and since at least 6 months that box is named Pantoprazole. Nobody objects to this as I always take the empty box with me.

Today the fellow said that what was on my prescription was not what that box had in it. I explained for the umpteenth time that I know that but was given that box full at some point and since then it has always been renewed in it, whatever the latest company called their product. He often lapses into Peter Sellers English and this time it was ‘zat is nut ze zame’. ‘Is it Pariet’ I asked. ‘Yes it is’ was the reply, ‘so what is the problem I have always had my pills from here and at some point someone gave me this box saying that it was the same.’ He refused to believe that I had been given it there.

He checked the computer and said I had never got that from there but I think what has happened is that previous assistants have been sloppy and not recording the change of product while airily assuring me that all was ok.

But the whole point is that why on earth is something so important allowed to be so confusing this way? I think I have always been given the right stuff, but how can I be sure, if this bloke is telling the truth I could have been dead by now, from a throat dissolved in acid wrongly allowed to rise from my stomach.

If I was a French citizen I would be writing to my MP about it rather than droning on here.

EDIT: Obviously I have asked this question before, or someone has, because both names popped up on the screen before I had finished the first. They do the same thing but are not exactly the same but, the one he rejected today works better with people taking multiple drugs, for instance blood thinners. :astonished_face:

Guess who takes blood thinners. :roll_eyes:

2

Different manufacturer brand names because healthcare has instructions to use generics at lesser cost wherever possible.

3

e.g Doliprane the favourite replaced by a cheaper generic is very common. Still paracetamol but different manufacturer.

4

Well, great, at least we are saving money. Is there not a duty, perhaps, to save lives? Maybe a doctor at one point changed to Pantoprazole after the heart attack for that very reason. So I now have 28 days of something which may affect my heart pills, great.

5

Brief update. The man is telling porkies, my prescription from my MT of December last year was for Pantoprazole, even though the assistant today said I hadn’t received it in the last 2 years.

6

Yes, but it is very likely that you have been given a the correct drug but branded under a different name. If you search for the medication in a pharmaceutical dictionary (hard copy or online) it will tell you the scientific name as well as the brand names under which it was marketed.

7

This is the key bit of information - on any medication, somewhere in small letters it will give the scientific name.

For example the antihistamine (anti-allergy) drug Cetirizine is sold under several different brand names, the best known of which is Clarityn. But it’s also sold as Zirtec, Piriteze and Benadryl.

To add to the fun, the US version of Zirtec is branded Zyrtec.

They are all exactly the same medication.

So if you want to make sure you are getting the right pills, find the scientific name and check that it’s on the packet you are given.

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8

Is there not also a reference number on the box, regardless of brand name, which refers to the specific drug?

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9

Where generics exist of course - drugs still on patent usually only have one manufacturer.

It’s not dangerous per se, if you are prescribed a specific brand that should be supplied but UK guidelines are to use the generic names and the pharmacy will fill the prescription with the appropriate drg - that might be from different manufacturers with different trade names but the generic name should be on the box.

However Rabeprazole and Pantoprazole are not the same drug. They are in the same class (proton pump inhibitors) but one should not have been substituted for the other if your prescription said Rabeprazole, that is what should have been dispensed (unless France has different rules).

There should be.

It does sound like something odd has happened with David’s prescription.

10

you can ask doctor to write on prescription if must be specific brand name to override default generics if there is a medical reason.

Have to be careful as some generics are indeed different or act differently than each other or brands, and for some drugs it matters.

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11

Thanks, only drug I ever take is a Doliprane when needed. Don’t take any medication of any kind at all so not worried about generics personally.

12

Yes, but that is my point, how are we to keep up with all the different ones? In any case the argument was not from me yesterday, I am used to these changes and trust them. But it was him, on seeing the box I keep the medicine in (I always take it along so I can point out what I am in need of, just one item on a long list on the prescription, they don’t all run out on the same day) who aggressively argued I was taking the wrong stuff and alleged I had never had that from them. He was proved wrong when I read back at home the clear print by their computer last December.

That, disputed by him, box gave no scientific names or numbers only said that it was gastro-resistant, the same as the current box I was given.

But there was no dispute from me, I am used to these variations, it was him that made a fuss about it. I do note though that this box says 10mg whereas the other was 40mg.

13

That matters! What does your prescription require?

14

Exactly that, the now discarded, box was indicated for the higher amount. So correct.

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