RESUMO
This study is presented to raise the awareness concerning the problems of the quality of princeps drugs used in developing countries. Its goal is to show that a drug is the result of a complex balance between a number of parameters and that, for the same active principle, the therapeutic effectiveness is conditioned by the pharmacotechnic characteristics, by the formulation in its galenic form and by manufacturing conditions. The comparison of the in vitro release of metformine from princeps products originating from different countries reveals pharmacotechnic differences: a delayed dissolution suggests a risk of reduction in effectiveness and an early dissolution a risk of overdose. Thus, the dissolution test applied to generic drugs could be of interest in the comparison between different princeps of a same active principle