/oss/taxonomy/term/4026/all en /oss/article/medical/generic-drugs-and-ambivalent-attitudes <p>Generic drugs offer low-cost alternatives to brand-name drugs and account for <a href="http://www.pmprb-cepmb.gc.ca/view.asp?ccid=1468">over ¾</a> of the prescriptions filled in Canada. Despite this, many people have lingering doubts, fears or negative perceptions of generic equivalents. Why?</p> Fri, 31 Mar 2023 20:11:47 +0000 Ada McVean M.Sc. 9461 at /oss /oss/article/general-science/when-living-things-make-our-drugs-us <p>Could you recreate your favourite restaurant meal at home? Imagine the challenge of getting that meal to go and receiving no recipe, no ingredient list; just the final dish that you get to taste, study, and reverse-engineer. What are its ingredients? How do you cook them? What’s in the sauce? Which fat did they use? Is there MSG in there to enhance the umami flavour?</p> Thu, 21 Apr 2022 18:36:41 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9091 at /oss /oss/article/health/generic-drugs-are-they-equally-effective-brand-name <p>If there is one thing patients typically complain about it is the price of medication. The complaint is justified because drug costs make up an increasingly large amount of total health care expenditures. According to the 2012 CIHI report, medications are the second most important source of health care expenditure, surpassed only by hospital costs. Interestingly, physician salaries ranked third. Therefore, cheaper alternatives to current medications could go a long way to easing the burden of rising health care expenditures in both Canada and the US.</p> Fri, 23 Aug 2019 16:57:19 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 7882 at /oss