The idea is wishful thinking for many reasons. FDA regulations only require that a drug be safe and efficacious. There is no requirement to be more efficacious than another drug. No manufacturer wants to bring out a drug that is second best or third best because the cost of drug development is so high that they want to be sure there is a market for their product before they invest in it as there is no way to determine if this new entity they are investigating is better or not as good as the drug that dominates the market for this particular indication. NEWER DOES NOT MEAN BETTER. MANY TIMES IT IS BUT NOT FOR EVERYBODY.

In addition, whenever a doctor prescribes ANY medication for you.... he is performing an EXPERIMENT as there is no guarantee you will respond in a manner similar to the reports in the literature that accompanies the drug (manufacturers package insert is the ONLY information allowed to be used for promotional purposes). More consideration.... what if a patient is allergic to any drug.... it is common for this patient to respond to a second drug for the same indication with no allergic reaction. Another consideration..... many patients have to take multiple medications at the same time for multiple problems, quite often when two or more drugs are taken simultaneously there is a drug INTERACTION or incompatibility that precludes taking a particular drug but another for the same indication will be safe and effective.  There is much more to this than you might know, however, if a manufacturer markets a drug it is because he expects the product to sell. On the other hand a good doctor will use only a few drugs he is familiar with so that he can learn to use them well.