Standard instructions for medical use of interchangeable drugs: analysis of modern regulatory documents

The article presents a review of modern regulatory and legal framework and draft regulatory documents on circulation of interchangeable drugs with regard to standard instructions for medical use. The analysis included more than 70 documents. There are two slightly different notions in this field: a generic drug and an interchangeable drug. A generic drug is not necessarily an interchangeable drug. The interchangeability of a drug is determined during pre-marketing evaluation. Some differences concerning normative requirements to the content of standard instructions for interchangeable drugs have been observed when comparing the regulatory framework of Russia, CIS countries and the EU. It is necessary to look not only at bioequivalence as an equivalent of interchangeability, but also take into account characteristics of excipients, and therapeutic equivalence based on preclinical and clinical trial results. The analysis of differences in regulatory documents can form the basis for further harmonization of requirements to instructions for medical use of interchangeable drugs.