Insurance companies won't tell: Brand name and generic drugs are
not the same  Call it the luck of the draw. When a series of
viral infections destroyed my wife's thyroid gland she needed to
take a hormone replacement drug. Her health insurer mailed a
90-day supply of Levothyroxine, the generic version of
Synthroid, which had no effect. When she refilled the
prescription the insurer mailed another 90-day supply, but this
time the pill was etched with the brand name Synthroid. Within
days she felt better. This seemed strange, since the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) says that brand name and generic
drugs, which can be produced when the brand name comes off
patent, are "bioequivalent." But what does bioequivalent really
mean? Indifferent insurers I switched jobs and, in turn, health
insurers, and soon discovered that our new insurance company
wasn't interested in the difference in efficacy between
Synthroid and its generic Levothyroxine. Our insurer told her it
would only pay most of the cost of the generic