Courtesy of my Popoluca, I am now blessed with 2 doctors in the family.(Ok, one is an intern.)
Both claim that buying generic medication in Mexico is a potentially deadly hazard. Both have been taught in their medical schools that generic drugs are not equal to brand name drugs. They claim that generics either do not cure or take longer than brand name drugs.
But curiously, the hospitals where they were taught plus all the public hospitals in Mexico are obligated by law to prescribe generic drugs when available. Rich patients and families, of course, buy branded drugs.
Aside from counterfeiting DVDs , Polo shirts and Johnny Walker Scotch, Mexico is also a major source of counterfeit medicines with a volume of US $ 650 million per year equal to 10% of total drug sales in Mexico
Of course my two doctors, along with many others in Mexico, unfortunately believe that anything made in the US is better than in Mexico, and swear that brand name medicine is the only way to go .
Generic equivalents of brand name drugs are now a major business in Mexico, and most of the international players like TEVA, GLAXOSMITHKLINE and others have subsidiaries in Mexico along with dozens of mom and pop drug producers. Technically the Mexican generic drug industry is well regulated, controlled and examined, but does have a loophole that generic drugs are only to contain the same active ingredients, but are not tested to work the same as the original brand name drug.
Because of monopolies, generic drugs were unknown in Mexico until about 13 years ago when the so called "Dr Simi" began a generic revolution in Mexico and Latin America which has turned him into one of the Mexico's richest men.
So who do you trust? Dr Simi, or the local pharmaceutical chain store which buys drugs probably through one or two wholesalers, or the corrupt government medical hospitals or clinics, or who?
Send me a postcard after you drop dead because you were not cured, unless of course you get your stuff from mail order Walgreens.
