In 2007, The People’s Pharmacy, a newspaper drug advice column by Joe and Terry Graedon, noted on their website that they started getting reports from people taking a generic form of Wellbutrin called Budeprion XL 300 mg. These reports discussed how patients taking the generic version of this antidepressant weren’t experiencing the same beneficial effects of the medication as when they were taking the name-brand version. And the side effects were often worse.
The Graedons became so concerned that they commissioned an independent lab analysis of the generic version of Wellbutrin manufactured by Impax Lab and Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2007. This report found that the generic version of Wellbutrin simply wasn’t equivalent to the brand-name version.
In April 2008, the FDA reviewed their existing studies, and concluded they were the same. The FDA did not review the independent analysis, or any actual data on the 300 mg version of the product (you know, the one people were actually complaining about).
Here it is more than four years later, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally agrees with the independent analysis, the Graedons, and the hundreds of people who’ve complained about the efficacy of Budeprion XL.