Generic Selection Criteria for Safety and Patient Benefit [IV] - Physicochemical and pharmaceutical properties of brand-name and generic ketoprofen tapes.

The physicochemical and pharmaceutical properties (pH, peel force, water-vapor permeability, and stretchability) of brand-name and generic ketoprofen products were evaluated and compared. The pHs of Mohrus as a brand-name product and Teikoku as a generic product were low (about 4). Among the other generic products, Patell and Nichi-Iko had a pH of about 4.3 while Frestol, Raynanon, BMD, and Touchron showed a pH of 4.6-5.2, which was in the pH range of normal healthy skin (4.5-6.5). The adhesive force was high (≥ 1.38) for Mohrus as a brand-name product as well as for Teikoku and Patell as generic products, but it was low (≤ 0.57) for the other 5 generic products. The water-vapor permeabilities of Mohrus as a brand-name product and Teikoku and Patell as generic products were low, being less than 1/6 of those for the other 5 generic products. Among the 5 generic products, BMD showed the highest water-vapor permeability (1,330 g/m²), and the other products also showed a value ≥ 1,100 g/m². The elongatedness of Mohrus was the lowest (15.5 cm), and that of Raynanon was the highest (24.5 cm); the difference was 9 cm. In this study, the physiochemical and pharmaceutical properties of ketoprofen tapes were clarified, which will allow pharmacists to provide products according to the needs of each patient when a brand-name product is changed to a generic one.