Generic medicinal products: if you know them, you do not avoid them

Abstract

Although equivalent (generic) medicinal products have been introduced in the Italian market since decades, Italy is still among the latest for prescription of equivalent medicinal products. Several reasons may explain this behavior such as a scant familiarity with equivalent medicinal products, a general skepticism toward "not branded-named" medications and an "indolent laziness" both by specialists and general practitioners. Yet, the wider use of the generic drug could: (i) save economical resources for the National and Regional Health Services and allow to allocate them in clinical research and development of new therapies; (ii) reduce the economic burden for the patients by saving the brand drug-related co-payments, especially if they are on polytherapy. Moreover, given that current resources for our health system are limited, preferring drug with expired patent should be an "ethical" issue and a mandatory duty. The purpose of this brief review is to propose a concise but exhaustive analysis on equivalent medicinal products, in order to clarify still existing doubts and to remove remaining cultural obstacles to their use, if any, in the field of clinical cardiology.