Myasthenia Gravis Support Group
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a neuromuscular disease leading to fluctuating muscle weakness and fatiguability. The hallmark of myasthenia gravis is muscle weakness that increases during periods of activity and improves after periods of rest. Although myasthenia gravis may affect any voluntary muscle, muscles that control eye and eyelid movement, facial expression, and...
On February 11, my prednisone was filled with a different generic. My MG had been relatively stable or improving up until that time, then last week I began to have more bulbar symptoms and just not feeling as well and went so far as to draft an email to my doctor. With MG it is hard to tell the difference between a correlation and a coincidence, but when I looked in the mirror Saturday, I noticed I was a little less jowly, so I went to the pharmacy and exchanged the pills for the old generic. I have just been back on them for a couple of days, but am having the side effects that began when I started the prednisone and am feeling stronger, took a longer hike up our neighborhood hill and then down the street some more and suffered cramps for it, relieved finally by a good dose of potassium. I just don't think I was absorbing the prednisone from the prior pill.
I would have thought all the kinks would have been worked out in the manufacture of prednisone and it is so cheap, there is not much profit in adulteration. So although it may be only some problem with me and the medication, have any of you had problems with medication from Roxane Labs? Evidently you can ask to be kept on the same generic at least at my local pharmacy. That is a good reason to keep the last empty medicine bottle if you are switched. As we have discussed before, although generics have to pass the same tests for dosage and bioavailability, they are not always the same regarding dyes, binders, and stability. If you are doing well on one generic that you are taking long term, you might want to ask that all future scripts be filled with the generic by that manufacturer. b.
I would have thought all the kinks would have been worked out in the manufacture of prednisone and it is so cheap, there is not much profit in adulteration. So although it may be only some problem with me and the medication, have any of you had problems with medication from Roxane Labs? Evidently you can ask to be kept on the same generic at least at my local pharmacy. That is a good reason to keep the last empty medicine bottle if you are switched. As we have discussed before, although generics have to pass the same tests for dosage and bioavailability, they are not always the same regarding dyes, binders, and stability. If you are doing well on one generic that you are taking long term, you might want to ask that all future scripts be filled with the generic by that manufacturer. b.
Just rambling...Thanks for the post
TJ
It is rediculous
as if we don't have enough to deal with
I'm sorry to hear the prednisone switch may be causing issues for you.
I've never paid much attention to the manufacturers of my drugs, including my prednisone and azathioprine, nor have I ever noticed any difference in effectiveness.
Curt
Larissa ;)
I had posted last week about Cellcept asking if anyone had noticed a difference between capsules and tablets. After taking tablets I noticed I was not getting the side effects I had gotten with the capsules. (including the lovely cramps!) When I got home from work tonight - I looked at the bottle from the tablets and sure enough they are from Roxanne labs.
I wonder if there is a way to look into that manufacturer. We have so much to deal with - dealing with something like this seems unfair.
I hope you are squared away with your new prednisone! Feel better soon!!!
Nicole
If you are not getting the side effects, you may not be getting the active ingredient either. Since you don't expect CellCept to work right away, it would be harder to tell whether there are problems or not. With the prednisone it has been very obvious, deterioration, back on the old medication, marked improvement and bang side effects (I was started on 10 mg just to avoid that).
Is any one else taking generic CellCept from Roxane, and not improving? This is really worrisome. I notified my doctor and he had not heard of problems with the manufacturer. I will talk to the pharmacist tomorrow and see what the process is about notifying FDA, if this is a more general experience. b.
Were you on the generic when you didn't respond to CellCept? b.
b.
The cost of medications depends on your insurance. They try to get you to purchase generics because they cost them less and have the same ingredients and bioavailability, but as you can tell from this post that is not always true for every individual. The prednisone and pyridostigmine (Mestinon) I had in the beginning were very inexpensive and effective and were generic. I am now back on that generic prednisone. Brand name Mestinon and CellCept will cost you whatever copay your insurance uses for brand names and my insurance treats the mail order and the retail pharmacy in different ways when it comes to the copay. Take a look at your policy or the web site and it should tell you what kind of copay you can expect. I use a couple of brand name drugs, one because there is no generic equivalent and the other because I had problems with one of the generics that was substituted (lack of effect). The advantage of working with a local pharmacist is that the person will often advise you as to substitutions that have given people problems. (Sometimes you have to read the body language.) b.
I'm still not understanding why a generic's efficacy would be any different than trade. Isn't this under ADA oversight? I just two weeks ago switched from Azor 10/40 (for hypertension) to the generic components because the co-pay went to $90 for the trade. The generics are working just as well as the trade.
I'm at a total loss
Curt.
Other generics I take (yuk, getting old) work like they are supposed to including my hypertensive treatment ones.
I didn't have problems when practicing using generics although I only used the brands for thyroid and heart medications. I certainly didn't expect any difficulty with prednisone! I know I'm weird but THAT weird. b.