You can sometimes track part numbers. When I was shopping for an autodarkening welding helmet I happened to notice that the model number of a cheapo chinese brand matched the last 6 or so digits of the part number of a more expensive brand. When I found the website of the chinese manufacurer of the cheap brand they said they supplied the filters for a number of other brands. Given that the odds of the numbers matching by accident would be astronomical, I have to asume that the more expensive brand were using the chinese manufacturer’s filters.
Which is amusing given how various salesmen told me that I was insane to trust my eyesight to a cheap chinese brand.
The code is just the tax ID which companies will often use instead of their full name sometimes, especially when they want to be somewhat anonymous. So they can print on the label “manufactured by [tax code] for Carrefour” without the manufacturer’s name upstaging the seller’s. Not only that but in many cases the seller may have more than one supplier for a certain product.
I think it is quite obvious from the last few years that people in America not only do not scream “1984” but welcome all sorts of control measures.
Yes, that’s why we have universal i.d.'s, a nationalized auto and driver’s license registry, and complete acceptance of RFID chips being used in stores.
People “welcome all sorts of control measures” as long as they apply to “them.” As soon as they hit home they get hysterical. That’s the lesson I take out of the last eight years, anyway.
Indeed, Costco explicity states that their house-brand products are of equal or better quality compared to name-brand products (though that statement may apply only to their Kirkland Signature products — I’m not sure).
(Referring back to your first post, do Lee jeans really cost that much? If so they must have really turned their brand image around. When I first became aware of “designer” or “name brand” jeans — in junior high school in the late '70s/early '80s — Lee was one of those brands You Just Didn’t Wear. Of course, Levi’s were looked at the same way then, so maybe that’s not saying much. Not that it made much difference to me; my mom wouldn’t buy me anything but Toughskins out of the Sears catalog.)
As Claire pointed out in an earlier post, same company, same plant doesn’t always mean same product. Sometimes, even the supposedly same product will have different formulations for different markets.
I worked for a poultry processing plant for a few years that processed things like nuggets, patties, tenders, etc for the fast food and restaurant industry. Most folks would be surprised to know that, depending on the franchisee and location, a nugget from the big arches may be different. Some, back before all McD’s went white meat, were all white, some were mixed, some had a higher TVP ratio, and others, mostly for predominately Islamic countries, were Halal…these were actually yummy, as they had some chicken skin ground into the recipe (yeah, I know, not good for you).
We had customers for “seconds” of different formulations…the product that didn’t pass the original contract’s quality standards (usually a cosmetic issue), but were still tasty and safe to eat. If you didn’t mind a small bare spot on a breaded patty or a mis-shapen nugget, they were fine. A lot of Mom & Pop restaurants, schools, jails and prisons purchased these for about 40 cents on the dollar. Others purchased “firsts” of a lower quality formula (think: lots of TVP, lower quality of meat, meh breading). Personally, the seconds usually tasted better.
My meandering is heading to a point …having the same manufacturer is a crapshoot.
A Previous boss made a huge point out of never to buy fancy brand pretzels. He worked at a place that made and packed basic pretzels, pretzel sticks, etc. He claimed every one of the 14 brands they packed were the same prezels from the same line, same recipie.
Well, the American government is obtaining and processing information in quantities that no other government on Earth could ever dream. Internet, phone calls, credit cards, bank accounts, travel, etc. No government on Earth keeps or processes so much information. Not only about foreigners abut also about American citizens. There have been a few lonely voices of dissent but all have been drowned by the voices claiming “9/11 changed everything”. Take the secret and illegal phone taps. Where is the outrage?
Yes, Spain has a terrible bureaucracy and I have ranted against it before but, believe me, the Spanish government has much less information and control over the individual, maybe in part due to the bureaucracy.
In fact, some measures implemented in Europe, like information about bank accounts or air travelers, have been implemented under great pressure from the USA.
The fine print of many store brand products explicity states that they are not manufactured by the brand name company, so that should help narrow it down too.
“Eucerin is a trademark of Beiersdorf inc. Equate Intensive Dry Skin Lotion is not manufactured or distributed by Beiersdorf inc.”
Take Canned Corn for Instance. It all comes from the same fields, more or less, then gets sifted through machinery.
First - They grade and size the Cobs, saving nice ones to sell as whole.
Second - they strip the kernals off the cob (I forget if they cook the Cobs whole first, then strip)
Third - they filter the bits o cob from the Kernels.
Forth - now they size and grade the kernels, and then filter more.
All the nice good plump lil morsels will go into the Premium Label, ~98% perfect kernels.
The random size stuff will go into the Generic Brand, ~70% not so perfect but still good enough to eat.
…the bits n pieces go into Creamed Corn.
That’s pretty much what they do for all food products, relative.
It seems in Spain the thought that “the store brand is just the same thing as the name brand” is sufficiently widespread that quite a few name brands advertising states “we do not manufacture for anybody else”.
With generic drugs, there are a few differences, depending on laws. For instance in Illinois there is a weird quirk in the law.
The law says if a doctor prescribes a brand name and ticks “May substitute,” on the form, by law, in Illinois the drug must be identical to the name brand. So if my doctor writes me a prescription for say “Paxil” and checks “may subsititute,” the pharmacy that gives me a generic should be giving me “Paroxetine” that is the same thing.
If the doctor writes me a prescription for “Paroxetine,” the drug may contain various inert ingrediants that vary among manufacturers.
Because of this almost all generic drugs are the same chemically, the differences in inert ingredients, isn’t as wide spread as thought.
So that varies depending on whether the doctor wrote the prescription for the brand name with permission to substitute or the generic directly.
I was also reading a study by Johns Hopkins and it involved Kaiser HMO because what they were doing was requiring their doctors to write presciptions for pills and have their patients break them in half.
In other words if Paxil at 20mg cost $100.00 for 30 pills. That’s $3.33 a dose.
Suppose the doctor prescibes 10mg of Paxil. The pharmacy would charge $90.00 for 30 days or 3.00 a dose.
So Kaiser was saying, if the doctor wants to prescibe 10mg he should write the presciption for 30 pills at 20mg a dose and have the patient break the pill in half. This way it is $100 for the drugs but you’re getting 60 doses or $1.66 a dose, much cheaper.
Obviously breaking a pill can’t be done with time release and other meds but JH did a study and they found about 90% of the pills that were scored DID INDEED have equal doses on each side, when broken correctly. But there were a few type of drugs where breaking the pill in half didn’t have equal doses. And that varied from manufactuer to manufacture of the same drug.
For example if “Acme Drugs,” makes generic “Paxil” their 20mg pill may have 10mg of Paxil on each side. But if “Beta Drugs” makes generic “Paxil” their 20mg pill may have 15mg of Paxil on one side and 5mg of Paxil on the other.
But most pills if you could spilt them it didn’t matter. But with cost cutting coming into effect expect it to become more of an issue later on. I believe I read as a result Kaiser stopped requiring doctors to write prescriptions this way.
I don’t understand what you mean here; this is how I understand it. The brand name from BigPharma is “Paxil”, it is a drug that contains the molecule known as “paroxetine” as it’s active ingredient. There are generic products that also contain “paroxetine” that are approved for treatment of the same medical condition(s).
If the doctor prescribes “Paxil”, then the pharmacy must dispense the drug made by BigPharma.
If the doctor prescribes “Paxil, may substitute”, then the pharmacy may dispense either the BigPharma product, or that made by a generic.
If the doctor prescribes “paroxetine”, then the pharmacy will default to dispensing their generic product (but may give the BigPharma product as well - I suppose the patient’s insurance and/or finances and/or preferences will determine this).
That’s generally been my experience too, and I think many states/provinces have taken this position.
If I understand what you meant (please correct me if I’m wrong), you thought that there was 1) Paxil, 2) generic paroxetine with identical excipients and 3) other generic paroxetines with non-identical exipients. This isn’t true. There is no “2”. and the fact that the tablets you receive are most likely to be different colours with different wording on them is enough proof of this! They only need to contain approved drug product (paroxetine), and pass bioequivalence clinical trials for the intended medical conditions. It’s possible that the recipe is the same, but not necessary.
The laws that dictate what the pharmacy can dispense are, IMHO, based on BigPharma defending it’s perceived rights and on patient trust in the system (people don’t trust generics, so want the doctors to write certain things).
It is an absolute requirement that scored tablets be equivalent in all fractions after breaking (half or quarters, usually). The FDA/HPFBI/etc requires this before approval; it must break into equal weights of equal dose. Just having a line pressed into the drug doesn’t necessarily mean it is scored; it might just be an identifying mark.
If the drug is not intended to be separable, then there is no guarantee that each half will perform the same way, because there was no requirement to ensure that uniformity of dosage distribution during manufacturing. If BrandName BigPharma made their 20mg DrugX with a score in it, there is no requirement for Generic MediumPharma to do the same; they can manufacture a 10mg tablet, or just a 20mg without scoring, or whatever, as long as they are bioequivalent. It is their choice as to how they wish to manufacture it (and what their manufacturing capabilities are!), and what market they are trying to get their hands on.
…having the same manufacturer is a crapshoot.