The following pharmacology definition has been taken from the Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Department Glossary at Boston University School of Medicine.
Equivalence:
In 1969, a federal Task Force on Prescription Drugs recommended that the words “generic equivalents” no longer be used in describing and comparing drug preparations. The Task Force recommended that an appropriate nomenclature should take into account three kinds of equivalence of drug preparations:
Chemical Equivalents:
Those multiple-source drug products which contain essentially identical amounts of the identical active ingredients, in identical dosage forms, and which meet existing physicochemical standards in the official compendia.
Biological Equivalents, or Bioequivalence:
Those chemical equivalents which, when administered in the same amounts, will provide essentially the same biological or physiological availability, as measured by blood levels, etc.
Clinical Equivalents:
Those chemical equivalents which, when administered in the same amounts, will provide essentially the same therapeutic effect as measured by the control of a symptom or a disease.
The copyright of the text is hold by Trustees of Boston University. Permission has been granted for its use in this blog.