[rootusrootus]

> In the US to market a generic you need to show that it’s the same as an existing approved product currently on the market.

On a related note, you don't need to show that it's actually the same, just that it's close enough. And that doesn't always work out for the best. An easy example being anticonvulsants. My younger brother died from an epileptic seizure and post-death examination determined the active ingredient of the anticonvulsant he was taking wasn't present in his blood. He had just been switched from brand-name to generic. Come to find out that this is/was a known issue that the FDA hadn't figured out how to solve. The generics aren't made using the same process and the end result isn't identical to the real drug.

[marcosdumay]

This is something nobody knows how to solve. The best health agencies manage to do is prohibiting some manufacturing procedure after it was shown that things built with it are ineffective.