COPD & Emphysema Support Group
COPD is a progressive disease characterized by airflow obstruction or limitation. Emphysema is characterized by loss of elasticity of the lung tissue, destruction of structures supporting the alveoli and of capillaries feeding the alveoli. Both have symptoms that include shortness of breath, among other respiratory troubles. If you are a COPD or Emphysema sufferer, join...
Hi everyone. Gwapo's post and rcar's reply about Arcapta prompted this question.
I live in the Midwest. I was at Mayo in Minnesota this summer and the pulmy nurse didn't know about Arcapta.
I asked the pharmacist at my pulmonary rehab program the other day about Arcapta and he didn't know about it. I live in IA.
I know Kaput's on Arcapta and she lives in the Midwest. Just sayin I think it's a little strange that some of these health professionals don't know about this med.
I live in the Midwest. I was at Mayo in Minnesota this summer and the pulmy nurse didn't know about Arcapta.
I asked the pharmacist at my pulmonary rehab program the other day about Arcapta and he didn't know about it. I live in IA.
I know Kaput's on Arcapta and she lives in the Midwest. Just sayin I think it's a little strange that some of these health professionals don't know about this med.
Take care,
Dennis
http://www.arcapta.com/index.jsp?usertrack.filter_applied=true&NovaId=2935376892991463709
I did and I talked to a customer rep and explained my problem. Norvartis is a Company who has headquarters in Switzerland and the Arcapta is actually made in Basel, Switzerland and supplied to drop ship pharmaceutical houses here in the US.
The process was.... have my pharmacy call a Norvartis phone number specifically for pharmacists and request the medication and Norvartis would call the closest drop ship pharmaceutical company and give them the aurhorization (?) to ship to my pharmacist. My pharmacist then talked to the drop ship and I received the meds in about 4 days.
The reason I was so persistent was that I had followed the clinical trials done here in the US for 3 years (+/-) and was impressed with the peoples' comments that were in the trials here on DS. It was trialed under the generic term Indacterol and released in Europe under the name of Onbrez Breezehaler
The reason it took so long is that , originally, Norvartis was offering only in the 150 and 300 mcg strength and the FDA wanted a 75 mcg strength. It was approved and released earlier this year.
I was on Advair and spiriva before this but when I went on Arcapta, the doctor changed to Advair for Qvar because of compatiblilty reasons. I now do 3 inhalers, The Qvar, Arcapta and Spiriva.
The great thing about the Arcapta capsule is that it is clear and you can see the amount of medication and afterwards see that you inhaled all of it. My co-pay was 12.00 for 30 days which is about in line for me. The copay for the 30 day supply of Qvar was 25.00. At least with my drug coverage. If I do mail order from the manager of the drug pland then I get a 90 day supply of Qvar for 25.00......Same with the Arcapta.
Sorry that this is so long but I know that If I give you the actual experience that I had with something ,it may answer a question that one of you may have.
Hope eace have a free breathing day.
Anna