Background: Because generic medicines reduce the financial burden on patients and medical insurance providers, they become more popular year after year.  However, there are still few reports that analyze the efficacy and safety of generic medicines, especially in terms of their characteristics and side effects.
Methods: Paclitaxel is an antineoplastic frequently used with good results in the treatment of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, and angiosarcoma, but fat solubility is high and various kinds of adverse events, such as myelosuppression and arthralgia, peripheral neuropathy, and alcohol hypersensitivity are known to develop.  We investigated the efficacy, characteristics, and the incidence of adverse events for the generic product of paclitaxel.
Results: Differences were found for the generic version in terms of the characteristics and preparation time.
Conclusion: The incidence of adverse events was not significant, suggesting that the generic version could be a reasonable substitute.