Newsletter: Know Your Medication Rights

This Newsletter from The Transplant Experience--an educational division of Astellas Pharmaceuticals that benefits pre and post-transplant patients by providing invaluable information about this entire lengthy and confusing transplant process--is the latest free newsletter I have received, and catches me up on all the previous communiques from The Transplant Experience.


"Know Your Medication Rights"

After a transplant, your doctor selects an immunosuppressant regimen that she thinks is best for you, taking into account your individual medical history. It is not only important that you make a commitment to taking these medications, but that you understand why this commitment is so critical to your long-term transplant health.

Maintaining the Right Balance of Immunosuppression

Many factors can influence how an immunosuppressant is absorbed into your body, including whether you take it with or without food, the type of organ transplant you received, and other conditions you may have.

If the amount of drug in your body is reduced due to a change in how it is absorbed by your body, you may have too little immunosuppression, which can increase the risk of rejection. If absorption is increased, you could have too much drug in your system, increasing the chance for additional side effects.

For these reasons, not following your medication regimen consistently may increase your risk for rejection or cause serious side effects. It is important to understand the different forms of medication and, specifically, what your doctor intends for you to take.

Understanding Brand and Generic Medications

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires brand name drugs and generic drugs to be safe—both are expected to meet the same standards of strength, purity, effectiveness, manufacturing, and quality controls. Generic drugs are considered bioequivalent (which means that the same amount of medicine is absorbed in the body within the same amount of time) based on studies conducted in 24-36 healthy volunteers. The FDA relies on the safety and efficacy studies conducted by the manufacturer of the brand name drug to establish the safety and efficacy of the generic medication.

For some medications, your doctor may want you to take a brand name drug Brand name drugs have costs associated with the discovery, development, and multi-phase clinical testing required to bring a new drug to the market. Generics cost less because generic manufacturers don’t have to repeat extensive clinical trial programs or take on the investment costs of researching and developing a new drug. For other medications, your doctor may want you to take a generic drug A generic drug is a copy of a brand name drug that is the same in dosage, safety, strength, way it is taken, quality, performance, and intended use. Generics have the same active ingredients as their brand counterparts, but may have differences in the inactive ingredients. A generic drug can be approved for marketing once the patent on a brand name drug has expired. Receiving the Medications Intended for You (If your doctor intends for you to take brand name Prograf® (tacrolimus) capsules, contact your transplant team immediately if your capsules look different from those pictured above†) In most cases, pharmacists or pharmacy personnel are not required to tell you or your doctor if they decide to substitute a generic drug for the brand name drug. Retail and mail-order pharmacies in many states are permitted—and are sometimes required—to fill all prescriptions with generic drugs. Automatic substitution of generics for brand names may occur...