Today the New York Times weighed in with an editorial on generics versus conventional drugs. (PDQhealth raised the banner last week—see below).

The Times adds some background worth considering. Not long ago, a large study showed that cheaper generic anti-hypertensive drugs were actually more effective at lowering blood pressure than the newer (and more expensive) brand-name treatments. The findings hit the headlines. Doctors began to switch patients back to the cheaper alternatives. But not many. And not for long.

“The percentage of hypertension patients taking the cheaper drugs, known as diuretics, rose from 30 to 35 percent before the study to 40 percent afterward,” the Times editorial writers note. “Then it remained flat.”

The reason: the pharmaceutical industry ramped up its marketing efforts on behalf of the big name, big buck drugs. Not surprisingly, patients ask for the drugs by name. Thanks to drug salespeople, physicians often have free samples to get them started on the medication.

The big drug companies have another advantage they can leverage. Studies of new drugs aren’t required to compare their effectiveness against existing medications. Even when comparison studies are done, the results may not be clear cut. Experts may quibble about how the studies were designed or the results interpreted.

But the fact remains: prescription drug prices have been one of the main drivers of soaring health care costs. And as costs rise and Americans find themselves struggling to make ends meet, more and more people are opting on their own to stop taking medications they can’t afford. That could be deadly.

It’s time for medical experts and working doctors to help steer patients toward generic drugs that are known to be just as effective and a lot cheaper. They’d be doing all of us a favor. And doing their part to remedy the nation’s emergency health crisis.

Tags: brand-name drugs, generics