
A generic drug is pharmacologically identical to its counter-brand drug
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Drugs seem to cause worse side effects if people think they are cheap. This discovery allows doctors to explain to people that treatments can be effective and safe, regardless of whether they are branded or cheaper copies.
“Most people have heard of the placebo effect,” he says Kate Fasse at the University of New South Wales in Sydney (Australia). “The idea is that you can take a sugar pill, think it’s going to work and it’s going to make you feel better.”