Safety and efficacy of generic drugs with respect to brand formulation
A 41-year-old man with 4 days of pain, tenderness, swelling and pressure around the eyes presented to his medical practitioner for clinical evaluation. Examination revealed the presence of fever (37.9°C), reduced sense of smell and taste and the patient lamented nasal obstruction with a yellow discharge from the nose.\nAcute sinusitis was diagnosed and due his allergy to betalactam drugs, a treatment with levofloxacin (Tavanic, Sanofi-aventis® 500 mg tablet once daily for 14 days) with beclomethasone (Bentelan, biofutura pharma S.p.A® 1 mg tablet every 8 h for 3 days) was prescribed and patient was asked to return after 3 days for clinical evaluation. During the follow-up, 3 days later, clinical evaluation revealed the persistence of symptoms with a worsening of the fever (38.5°C) and the patient referred that he was using a generic formulation of levofloxacin (Ranbaxy®, 500 mg once daily). The change from generic to brand formulation induced a complete resolution of symptoms in about 10 days.