Haematologist here - your references don't support your argument.
Here is the referenced ASH abstract from 2015 [1]. It doesn't show any statistically significant finding. Even if it did, it is simply an observational study with few patients - there may be other confounding factors at play - you would need a randomised control trial to find out. I doubt that is going to happen. Also it should be noted that all authors disclose receiving payment from Novartis, and there isn't a follow-up paper by the same authors, from my brief googling. Actually, the figure looks very strange - they have an n=11 according to the number at risk along the bottom.
A published paper from Turkey compared 36 on brand versus 26 on generics. They didn't find any differences, but noted this[3]:
Among our patient cohort, the generics were at least non-inferior to the original molecule regarding efficacy and tolerability when used in the upfront setting, as well as when used subsequently (Eskazan et al, 2014). Prospective randomized trials with larger number of patients are needed to address the efficacy of generics of IM in patients with CML.
The chemical structure of imatinib, C29H31N7O isn't that complicated[2]. If a medicine can be proven to contain the same amount of the active drug, particularly when the structure is relatively straight forward, I'm inclined to believe that.
The story is a bit different for more complex treatments (i.e. antibody treatments like rituximab - C6416H9874N1688O1987S44) and for drugs with various preparations (especially inhaled or slow-release versions). In those cases you have to check the active ingredient and formulation - in which case the Brand usually does matter.
Here is the referenced ASH abstract from 2015 [1]. It doesn't show any statistically significant finding. Even if it did, it is simply an observational study with few patients - there may be other confounding factors at play - you would need a randomised control trial to find out. I doubt that is going to happen. Also it should be noted that all authors disclose receiving payment from Novartis, and there isn't a follow-up paper by the same authors, from my brief googling. Actually, the figure looks very strange - they have an n=11 according to the number at risk along the bottom.
A published paper from Turkey compared 36 on brand versus 26 on generics. They didn't find any differences, but noted this[3]:
The chemical structure of imatinib, C29H31N7O isn't that complicated[2]. If a medicine can be proven to contain the same amount of the active drug, particularly when the structure is relatively straight forward, I'm inclined to believe that.The story is a bit different for more complex treatments (i.e. antibody treatments like rituximab - C6416H9874N1688O1987S44) and for drugs with various preparations (especially inhaled or slow-release versions). In those cases you have to check the active ingredient and formulation - in which case the Brand usually does matter.
[1]http://www.bloodjournal.org/content/126/23/2778?sso-checked=... [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imatinib [3]http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjh.12937/full#bj...