Question about finasteride brand and dosage

[RandomGuy]

Hi!

I've recently started finasteride again at the advice of a hair transplant doctor here in Bangalore, India.

Since I faced side effects the last time I tried it, the doctor advised that I start with a 1 mg dose on Mondays and Fridays and 0.5 mg on Wednesdays. He also asked me to start taking some multivitamins since my tests showed that I was deficient.

Been taking it for around 2 weeks now and am happy to report that I'm not experiencing any side effects this time. I'm currently planning to switch to the full 1 mg on MWF dosage from next week.

Still, I had a few questions-

1. The generic finasteride brand which I got from the doctor is MPB-1 by Apple Theraupetics(see attached pictures below). Though the company etc seem legit, I still have the (probably irrational) fear that the finasteride I have is fake.

Can someone who has knowledge of Indian generic finasteride brands pitch in here? Or maybe someone from India?

2. Will there be any issue if I switch finasteride brands once my current batch runs out?

3. I've seen a lot of people writing that they take finasteride every other day. Is this the same as MWF?

4. How much time does it normally take to start seeing the effects of finasteride?

5. I was thinking of creating a thread logging my progress with finasteride. Which subforum would be suitable for this?