Would you use meds from the dollar store?
 

How cheap will you go?

Would you use the off-brand meds, such as ibuprofin, antacid tablets, cough drops, etc?

Does this stuff have to be regulated?



-Brad

IIRC, only naturopathic meds avoid the scrutiny of the FDA. No-name brands like you mentioned must still adhere to FDA standards.

FWIW, I have used off brand (pharmacy brand) meds for many years with no ill effects.

We use them frequently. Like many cheaper brands of most anything, they are produced by the large pharmaceutical companies anyway.

Unless they are counterfeit with spelling mistake on the packaging.

Use them almost exclusively......

I used to be a pharmacy tech, and unless someone requested "Tylenol" brand, we always got them the generic brand.... Same stuff. :)

As long as it is not made overseas. Bandages and peroxide seem to be ok.

Not the Dollar Store, but most "store" brands seem to contain the same active ingredients in the same proportion. I will usually buy a store brand over a name brand to save a little coin (it's usually a dollar or two less and it all adds up.)

Generic yes. Dollar store generic, no.

No problem with store brand generic. No different then generic prescription medications.
Dollar store generic? Only if the zombie apocalypse happens and I need the meds.

I would be careful of the origin. I have many years in pharmaceutical and API manufacturing and would also be cautious about drugs manufactured overseas.
It is true they must adhere to all FDA regutions and guideline and manufacture under cGMP standards, but it can take a while for these companies overseas to be audited and when they are, are likely noncompliant.
The CFRs written specific for OTC/drug manufacturing can be difficult for manufacturers in other companies to understand. In speaking with numerous consultants and ex fda personnel, India and china were some of the worst, and Japan on the better end of the spectrum.

On thing to note is those company generics that label their products "compares to" must submit their product to a third party for evaluation to ensure they meet the properties of the name brand and can be considered a "national brand equivalent."

But don't most of the major US pharmaceutical companies have plants worldwide including many in Asia? I think most of the negative reports are BS and just another way of setting fear to the end user. The industry is full of people worse than the 'banksters'. (Edit: Let me add those with the FDA)

Some do and others just contract the work. Generics can be manufactured by anyone as long as they adhere to an OTC or other compendial monograph.
The problem with the audit reports is that it is only one side of the story or just the auditors perspective. If the auditor is trying to build a case, the they portray findings worse than actual. The biggest problem is that the new compliance officers do not consider logic and science when performing their audits and have the mentality that the manufacturer is guilty. So in that aspect, yes the reports can be exaggerated.
Beyond that what makes things worse is when the media tries to interpret these reports as they really do not understand them and their presention of the data to the public is grossly incorrect.

Our overseas factories work to FDA standards if we intend to market the product here. The negative reports are not BS. One of my responsibilities is the control of imports to the US and we operate under very strict controls. Just before Christmas I got chewed on by a Sr VP for not allowing prototype samples of a nutritional into the country. I stopped them because the overseas facility was not an FDA registered site. He gave me heck because he needed them for a dog & pony. But the rules say if the factory isn't registered you can't bring in the product. The drug rules are even tighter. So it's no BS. At least not with the big houses.

I have seen that certainly. But by and large the auditors are working off of a tick box agenda. Is it validated yes or no? Do you a written stability program yes or no? etc.

NO WAY!

I get all my drugs from the guy in the parking lot by the laundromat

not those ones dude.

funny story though...I met a guy at a bike rally some years ago and when he asked me what I do I replied " I work in the drug industry". Before he could reply his young son looked at me in horror and said " drugs are BAD!!". I then tried to explain the difference between the medicine doctors give you and drugs you buy on the street. He wasn't buyin' it.

ZIngg!

Exactly... We were down in Arizona with the kids for a bike race. We went to a dollar store to pick up a few things, among them, toothpaste. it was actually a name brand toothpaste that we occasionally use at home. We were very surprised to see it at a dollar store as it is normally about $4 a tube elsewhere. Bought several of them at that price!

But there was something just absolutely NOT right about it. Weird taste, strange aftertaste and a numb sensation in your mouth after brushing. I think we "tested" two of the tubes with the same result and threw the whole bunch away.

Don't know what the issue was, but I'll never buy any type of that stuff from a dollar store again.

angela

I don't take much over the counter stuff. I take ibuprofen, very occasionally, rarely even. Melatonin at night fairly regularly, brand name multivitiamin sporadically. Dollar store aspirin a few times a week because it is supposed to thin your blood out the right amount. I take an aspirin the day before I travel. I figure aspirin is aspirin is ASA. Unless they are using sawdust for filler, and even then, the roughage would probably do me good.