I don't think it is completely going off the market. My pharmacist said they are discontinuing Asacol 400 MG tablets, so the 800 MG tablets will be the lowest milligram form. My doctor had to write a new prescription for the 800 MG.
It hasn't really helped me much, except for less visits to the toilet. I have a headache every day. It has made my joint and muscle pain much worse. I still have stomach pain, bloating, pressure and cramping. I am beginning to believe that nothing will really help.
Doctors seem to be the last people to know what is going on.
I hope that you are faring better.

I used to take Asacol but because of the number of pills I had to take, my GI switched me to Lialda. Lialda is the same drug but in a time release version. In the morning, I took 4 Lialda at once instead of taking 16 Asacol throughout the day (4 pills 4 times a day). As it turns out, I do not have the enzyme to break down the time release modifier so I was completely toxic with all my organs shutting down before we realized what was happening. Needless to say I don't take Asacol or Lialda anymore but the shift to Lialda may be part of what the pharmacy is talking about.

Thanks for your feedback! I am still waiting to see what will happen. I guess I don't need to panic but have been doing pretty well with round 2 on this medicine and don't want to rock the boat too much.

Lialda is a completely different formulation as is pentasa. Asacol has its own time release called Asacol HD. These are all mesalamine or 5asa drugs and they open and directly reduce inflammation. It's like a topical ointment for your bowel.

If you having an issue with pain, it's unfortunately from your disease :(.

Asacol is only the first line of defense and you might need to see about taking an immune suppressant or steroid to help your inflammation get under control.

Also, if it were me, I'd call my doc proactively and just ask him if the change in dosage availability the pharmacy mentioned is going to affect your current prescription. Because he may need to adjust your prescription to what's available and better to have that addressed now so you don't run out or get jammed up because you don't have a proper prescription when you need it.

Your doc may or may not be aware of the new dosage availability, but if he is, I highly doubt he'd remember every single patient of his on that med and contacting them about it especially if he's not seen you in a while or his staff refills your current meds.

That or it could be that the pharmacy might not be ordering that dose anymore. It is a good point that an MD would not find every patient on a medication and notify them. Sometimes we have to do a little work on our own :)

oh no! I hope this isn't true because I take Asacol HD! I haven't heard anything about it going off the market though!

Guppy it sounds like just the dosage amounts available may be changing, not that it's going off the market completely.

I found this link. Not sure of the accuracy.
http://www.ashp.org/DrugShortages/NotAvailable/Bulletin.aspx?id=1017

I just contacted my daughter who has been on asacol for 12 yrs. 3200mg's a day and she said that her dose has remained the same, but 2yrs. ago they switched her from 400's to 800's. She has a very highly rated GI doctor with all kinds of awards and has made no mention of asacol being discontinued.

Yea that lialda almost killed me.

My daughter said her main medicine was parenthal or something like that. I should have asked her to spell it but I heard my grandkids asking her something and didn't want to hold her up.

I'm reasonably certain asacol will not be discontinued but like others have said you have to be your own advocate. bestwishes KP

It could be because they are or have been in a law suit. They where giving their sell reps 20.000 dollars a month to wine and dine rich doctors to get them to write scrips for it. Mean while they done offer a drug assistance program. I was paying 300 to 400 a month for the drug. I hope they all go to HELL

They are replacing the caplets with capsules. I got mine yesterday.
The dosage is the same (400mg). The only difference is that I have to take them an hour before or two hours after I eat.

I repeat, the only difference is the delivery, capsules instead of caplets.

That is all.

I got a letter from my insurance company letting me know about the switch. Asacol will be replaced by Delzicol. I was taking Asacol, 5 pills twice a day. My doctor just gave me the new prescription for Delzicol and I'll be starting that once it arrives in the mail. I'm so surprised that none of you have heard of this, though. Here's a helpful link to a CCFA article that talks about the switch:

http://www.ccfa.org/news/ccfa-position-on-dezicol.html

I'm confused? I'm on Asacol HD and Canasa, some people are saying its the dosages changing and others are saying there's a new medicine??

I think it's basically the same medication from the same company, but just called something else. Truthy's message from 4.29.13 describes the caplets vs capsules and when to take them which is referenced in the CCFA article.

Note that the article says Asacol HD 800mg is still available.

Regardless if it's a name change, a medication discontinuance, etc, call your doc to see if you're impacted by the changes.

The discontinuation of Asacol 400 mg comes about because the U.S. FDA recommended that dibutyl phthalate (DBP), an inactive ingredient in Asacol products, be removed from all drug products. In order to accommodate the FDA guidance, Warner Chilcott developed Delzicol 400 mg delayed release capsules that do not contain DBP.

Asacol HD is just a stronger version of Asacol. The dosage is 800mg per pill instead of 400mg. 800mg tablets aren't bioequivalent to 400mg tablets so your doctor may or may not readjust your dosage.

I chose to go the Asacol HD route after Asacol. I notice the bottle says not to take it longer than 6 weeks but I was told that people have been on it for much longer than that with no problems. Just depends on your body and the severity of your condition I guess.

I use it for Crohn's in combination with 6-MP. The goal is to eventually get me off of the Asacol but I have had so many medication changes for Crohn's in the past 6 months we are doing things slowly so my body doesn't experience too much shock and go crazy.