Generic

As Jeremy Greene lays out in his excellent book, the story of the generic drug industry is is far more complicated—and far more interesting than most of us might guess... [Greene] provides readers with a useful framework for understanding how we got to where we are and how we might apply the lessons of the past to the challenges we face today.

Greene turns the concept of generic as 'ho-hum' on its head with this jam-packed survey of the effects culture, medicine, and politics have exerted on today's ubiquitous generic drugs for the last 50 years.

Jeremy Greene's Generic: The Unbranding of Modern Medicine fascinates because the very meaning of the key term 'generic' is so unstable. Every time the reader thinks they have a handle on its dimensions, another four open up.

Greene's book is a dizzying historical-political-social-cultural account of the forms generic drugs have taken over past several decades.

This fine, stimulating, and entertaining book offers much food for thought.

Well written and informative... bring[s] to life a tangled web of competing interests.

A theoretical and empirical primer that explains the success and failure of generics and what it means to choose between generic and brand name drugs. Extensively researched and documented, Generic is the first book to chronicle the development of generics, and will probably be the key reference on the topic for some time... A book that should be read by anybody with a serious interest in contemporary healthcare.

Physician/historian Greene provides a thoroughly researched discussion about generic products derived from innovative or brand-name drugs, focusing on their "social, political, and cultural history"... Greene ably argues for generic by providing inside details about the drug approval process.

... Generic is an excellent example of how to intelligently construct a modern material history, grounded in the logics of the everyday.

... recommended reading for anyone interested in postwar developments in U.S. health care and for scholars and analysts of contemporary pharmaceutical politics.

Greene’s book is a pioneering work. His study is particularly relevant for historians of medicine and health but will be of interest for readers from history and sociology of science, as well as other social scientists who specialize in drug regulation.

An enlightening and passionately written work, Generic opens the 'black box' of the pharmaceutical world. This book will deeply impact the way we imagine and practice medicine in the future.

An extraordinarily timely and important contribution to our understanding of health practice and public policy. The status of generics is a significant subject in itself, and also a tool to think with, linking physiology and policy, business history and clinical options. Generic is a book that should be read by anyone with a serious interest in contemporary health care.

Jeremy Greene brings his knowledge and wisdom as both historian and physician to bear on the economics and politics of branding, marketing, and consumerism in health care. Most intriguingly, he asks fundamental questions about what it means to say one drug is the same as another. Fascinating and eye-opening.

Generic is a gem. Original, multi-layered, and powerfully narrated, the book unearths the history and value of generic drugs. While illuminating the dynamic interface of medicine, public health, and the marketplace in the US and beyond, Greene has crafted a vital compass that can greatly help us to understand and navigate the pharmaceutical present.