Are you being served?

Are you being served?

Epileptics who use anti-seizure drugs should be aware that representatives for the Epilepsy Foundation believe that you should not change your medication to a generic version of your current drug because making such a change may cause seizures.

But generic drugs are required to be chemically identical to their brand name counterparts. So is there any basis for the claim about causing seizures? The FDA says there’s no evidence to back up the claim. Nevertheless, the Epilepsy Foundation is pushing ahead with lobbying efforts that would make it more difficult for pharmacists to change customers’ prescriptions to the less expensive generics.

If this doesn’t make any sense, here’s the missing puzzle piece that provides the full picture. The Epilepsy Foundation is described by the Wall Street Journal as a “nonprofit group supported by the drug industry.”

Ah! Now it’s crystal clear!

But money isn’t the only motive that may be driving this fear of generic drugs. WSJ reports that representatives of no less than four drug companies are Epilepsy Foundation board members. The president of PhRMA (a drug company advocacy group) also sits on the board.

On the home page of the foundation’s web site, you’ll find a box labeled “Our Commitment to You” along with this message: “The Epilepsy Foundation pledges to always bring you accurate and up-to-date information about epilepsy, its treatment, and the impact it has on daily life.”

But if you dig deeper into the site, you’ll also find this disclaimer: “While the Epilepsy Foundation takes pride in providing accurate and up-to-date information about epilepsy and its consequences, there may be omissions or inaccuracies in such information on this Web Site.”

Omissions. Like neglecting to mention that the foundation is a drug industry advocacy group masquerading as a patient advocacy group.

For a more detailed report on the Epilepsy Foundation, check Michele Cagan’s HSI On the Spot blog posting titled “Keeping Costs High” (7/17/07). You can find HSI On the Spot at this link:
http://www.hsionline.com/redir/blog.html

Source:
“Industry Fights Switch to Generics for Epilepsy” Sarah Rubenstein, The Wall Street Journal, 7/13/07, online.wsj.com