To the Editor.—
The reasoning behind prescribing and filling prescriptions with generic drugs rather than by trade name is good, but there are also problems to be considered, especially perhaps for the patient with allergies. A patient of mine who is hypersensitive to tartrazine recently ran afoul of the generic-trade name issue. I had prescribed metaproterenol sulfate (Alupent), 10 mg, two pills to be taken three to four times a day. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic yellow dye No. 5 (tartrazine) is absent in this particular preparation.However, when she took the prescription to a pharmacist, he filled it with Alupent, 20 mg, which my patient noted was gray instead of white. When she asked about the possibility of tartrazine in the pills, she was informed that there was none, and they would be the same as was called for in the prescription, with the exception that she would need to