Automated equipment in these labs permits rapid analysis of large numbers of drug samples. When defects are found, the drug company is notified and appropriate measures are taken to remove the defective products from the market. Testing and certification is required by law for insulin and antibiotics and for biological products, such as serums and vaccines. Even when FDA discovers major industry-wide problems with drugs other than antibiotics or insulin, it may ask manufacturers to have each batch of that drug certified by the Agency before it is released for sale. FDA's effort to assure the quality and therapeutic equivalence of drugs should be of more than passing interest to consumers, for it concerns their wallets as well as their health.
Generics generally are less expensive than their brand name equivalents.
Generic prescribing has been on the rise during the past decade. A national audit of prescriptions filled in retail pharmacies showed that over 101 million new generic prescriptions were dispensed in 1978, more that 13 percent of the total new prescriptions for that year. In 1966 new generic prescriptions accounted for only 6.4 percent of the total. Antibiotics are at the head of the list of the 20 leading generic drugs. Generic prescribing may increase in the future as a result of action by most States to repeal laws that forbade pharmacists from dispensing any version of a drug product other than that specifically prescribed by the doctor.