Skip Main Navigation outline goes here The Lancet, Volume 359,
Issue 9314, Page 1351, 13 April 2002
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)08303-4Cite or Link Using DOI  Generic
medicines are not substandard medicines  Carol Adelman and
Jeremiah Norris (Dec 22/29, p 2174),1 who work for the industry-
funded Hudson Institute, advocate the use of patented drugs,
pointing to what they say are risks associated with generic
drugs. They confuse generic drugs with old, substandard,
ineffective, and counterfeit drugs. Generic does not mean old.
The 1996 World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreements mandate all
member countries to provide 20-year patent protection for
medicines. Before that date, however, many countries (including
Spain, Finland, and India) thought of medicines as too important
to subject to market monopolies and exempted them from
patentability. All drugs in these countries could, therefore, be
generic. This situation is still true for countries that have
not implemented the WTO Agreements. Drug quality is important.