Generic drugs are as good as brand names for heart problems

When your pharmacist says there is a generic version of the branded drug your doctor prescribed, have you ever wondered: Does this generic drug work just as well?

A review published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week suggests that generic cardiovascular drugs—specifically, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, statins, and the blood thinner warfarin—are just as effective as their brand-name versions. Cardiovascular drugs were the focus of the study since they are the greatest total prescription drug expense for patients not in the hospital.

The study, by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, looked at several classes of drugs used to treat chest pain (angina), blood clotting, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Examining 47 studies that compared generics with brand names for more than 20 years—between 1984 and the summer of 2008—the researchers found that generics yielded the same clinical benefits to patients as the branded drugs.

For example, the brand-name drug Cardizem, a calcium channel blocker, was no more effective than its generic version, diltiazem. A long-acting beta-blocker metoprolol also worked as well as brand-name Toprol XL. And Zocor, a statin used to reduce cholesterol, performed no better than its generic version, simvastatin.

It's important to note that generic drugs are not like a "generic" version of a common household product like cereal, soap or canned food, where a brand could be a better, or even a different, product altogether. Although a generic drug can look different—another shape, size, or color than a branded drug, and will probably not have a sweetener on the outer shell—it is, by law, the same drug.

CR's Take: Talk with your doctor about your prescription as it is being written in his or her office. Ask whether the prescription is for a brand or generic, and learn why your doctor has prescribed one or the other.

Also, educate yourself about medications. Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs, a free public education initiative, offers a number of drug reports, including ones on ACE inhibitors, antiplatelet drugs, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, and statins. These reports analyze drug effectiveness using evidence-based reviews and drug price information to identify "Best Buy" drugs—good-value drugs that are known to work well, are less expensive, and have a known safety history.

—Lisa Gill, Web writer and producer, Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs