The price of the EpiPen emergency allergy medication soared by 400% to 600% over the last decade, in part due to a lack of competition. In February, the FDA rejected a potential competing injector from Teva Pharmaceuticals, but now the company says it still hopes to get an EpiPen alternative in pharmacies — at some point in the next two years. [More]
generic
Why Does Anyone Ever Buy Brand-Name Painkillers?
By 7.9.13
For everyday over-the-counter drugs like painkillers or allergy medicine, do you pick up the brand name, or a generic? Even if the inactive ingredients and binders are slightly different, the brand-name and store-brand meds that sit side-by-side on the shelf should have the same effects. One costs a lot less. So why does anyone buy name-brand over-the-counter drugs? [More]
Buying Generic Doesn't Save Shoppers As Much As It Used To
By 2.3.12
Used to be, back in the days of yore, shoppers looking for a deal in the grocery store could go for a generic store brand item instead of the more expensive name brands. But lately the gap between those two options has been narrowing, to the point where store brands sometimes even cost more than their previously pricier counterparts. [More]
Actual Children Taste-Test Generic Cereals, Declare Them Delicious
By 4.15.10
Personal finance blogger Len Penzo doesn’t have a minivan full of highly trained tasters at his disposal like our siblings at Consumer Reports. When he set out to compare generic and name-brand cereals, he found something even better. He rounded up the small children of his neighborhood, and subjected them to a blind cereal taste-test. [More]
Walmarts Kicks Name Brands Off Shelves
By 2.22.10
Another reason to try/buy generic: you might have to because your favorite name-brand could be getting the boot from store shelves. [More]
Grocery Shrink Ray Strikes Store-Brand Sugar
By 12.9.09
The grocery shrink ray has struck bags of sugar in two different parts of the country. Bags that a rational consumer would assume contain five pounds of sugar–since they’ve contained five pounds of sugar for as long as most Americans can remember–now contain four pounds of sugar. Somehow, we don’t think that grocers are doing this as an effort to reduce Americans’ sugar consumption. [More]
Consumer Reports Finds Generic Foods Taste As Good As Brand Names
By 9.1.09
Labels are eye-catching and all, but they don’t taste so good. Consumer Reports undressed some food items and found out that deep inside, generics are just as tasty — and in some cases even yummier — than their labeled counterparts.
Counterfeit Drugs Made In China Relabeled "Made In India"
By 6.12.09
The Chinese poison train makes plenty of stops outside of the United States. When those stops are in developing countries, bad things can happen. Even worse things happen when dangerous products from China are intentionally mislabeled as being from another country. Say, India.
Target's Generic Meds Are Maybe Too Generic
By 9.10.08
We’re big fans of Target’s smart approach to package design for medicine. They may want to give a little more thought to their OTC generics, however—how about using more distinct labeling for the children’s line, for example? One reader explains why this would be a lot safer.
Is The "Wal-Mart Effect" Slowing Drug Inflation?
By 9.21.07
The inflation rate for prescription drugs—currently at 1 percent for the past 12 months—is at its lowest ever recorded in the past three decades, and some are speculating that Wal-Mart’s popular $4 generic drugs program is helping drive the costs down across the market.
Hey Walmart: 4 Dollar Drugs Are No Big Deal
By 10.26.06
Over at TomPaine.com they’re a little suspicious of Walmart’s PR darling, the $4 generic drug plan. Why?
Kmart: We Already Have a $5 Generic Drug Plan.
By 9.22.06
In the wake of media buzz concerning Wal-Mart’s $4 dollar a month generic drug plan, and Target’s claim that they too will slash prices, Kmart has responded: But we already have a $5 a month plan, hello? Guys? Are you there?
WalMart Slashes Generic Prescription Prices
By 9.22.06
WalMart’s bouncing smiley face just danced up and down on top of your local CVS. Once the roof caved, he moved over to Walgreens, where the body count is pending. RiteAid is next. Cower in fear.
Confessions of a Generic Magazine
By 5.8.06
Rony over at Are You Generic? sent us a link to these disestablishmentarianist stickers he hopes you’ll print out and plaster all over those three hundred page advertisement magazines conservatively injected with gray pablum content that people — for whatever incredible reason — actually pay good money for.
