I believe there have been at least one post about some serious problems with Rytary......in the past month.....psullivan I believe....you can read back........also by breaking it in half...you effectively bypass the enteric coating that makes it time release...just FYI....obviously its working for you, that's a good thing!..... but in case anything changes you can file this away for ref.


peace

Brer T

sandharbor posted a bad experience with Rytary not psullivan....


BT

no, no... I am not taking Rytary. I am trying to simulate time release by cutting plain old "vanilla" Sinamet tablets in half.

BT you were right I did post a comment about Rytary on Sandharbor's topic post. I was initially good on it. Had more energy an I was happy with that. Until he upped it. then i started to experience dystonia. Gary, I have talked to many people that love it but even if it does if you are paying full price for it yourself it is very very expensive and there's no gaurantee that when thy up it you won't have some sort of reaction. This is just my oppinion, I am down on it because of the dystonia but like i said there are people that love it (Hisnobs had success with it i believe). Good luck to you! Paula

Ahh yess.....ive done that before .....PD Alchemy is good. Sorry Gary I misunderstood.the post.....good luck avoiding the costs! They'll get cha if they can.


peace

BT

Paula, did you tell your doctor about the Dystonia? If so what did he say?

Hi CM LTNS!!! Yes i did and he decreased it and i still got it but not nearly as bad. But then the tremors were off the charts bad. He tol me i was one of the rare ones that get the dystonia with too much or too little Levodopa. So he increase it but not in the same way, he made a small increase with each dose.So far it is working for me but it's only been a week.i never realized how awful dystonia can be. I'll let you know how this works out...

How is this drug different from Sinemet CR, I take Sinemet CR at night but was wondering if I could also use it in the day.

Its reworked sinemet to extend the patent......no matter what anyone says...

When pharmaceutical companies get a patent on a new molecule, they have 20 years to recoup the cost of developing a drug out of it. Two decades sounds like a long time, but clinical trials eat several of those years, leaving only a handful of years to earn back the money spent bringing the drug to market. So pharmaceutical companies look for loopholes in the law. Here are three shady things these companies do to extend their patents - and rake in more cash from consumers.

Photo by Mircea BEZERGHEANU via Shutterstock.

Once the patent expires, other manufactures can make the medication, and this severely decreases the cost of the pharmaceutical. That's why companies try to extend the time they hold exclusive rights to a drug and can set prices as high as they wish. One common way they do this is to develop new chemical entities - small modifications of existing, often "off-patent molecules" that allow them to get a 5 year extension on the patent.



BT

Method One: The Mashup

This method is simple. Take two existing pharmaceuticals on the market, combine them as a new medication, and bring it to retail. The mashup (known as combination therapy in medical vernacular) is a great way to sell "off-patent" pharmaceuticals under a brand name and charge a higher price.


Method Two: The Planned Purification
Research into Lexapro began in 1997, six years before the Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbecks patent on the molecule citalopram, the active component of the anti-depressant Celexa, expired. The pharmaceutical Celexa exists as a mixture of two forms of the same molecule, (R)-citalopram and (S)-citalopram.

Lexapro spent only three and a half years in development, with this short time period due to knowledge that only one of forms of molecule citalopram caused the anti-depressant effects of the drug. Lexapro, the purified replacement, contains only the active form of citalopram, (S)-citalopram. This purified version instantly becomes a new drug in the eyes of the FDA, warranting a five year period of exclusivity as a new chemical entity, and providing an amazing revenue source when Celexa became vulnerable to generics in 2003.



Method Three: Alternate Delivery

The extended release trick! While this method benefits many patients, creating a micro-encapsulated form or a pill with layers that dissolves at different rates and allows for controlled release helps a brand stay on the market.

A great example of patent award via alternative delivery is Intermezzo, a form of the generic drug zolpidem, the molecule active in Ambien. Intermezzo dissolves quickly under the tongue, unlike the pill form of zolpidem, allowing it to be approved as a new chemical entity in November 2011 by the FDA.

Intermezzo also features a lower dosage of zolpidem. The combination of quick onset and low dosage allows for a shorter period of sleep than the 8 hours required for Ambien. Intermezzo features the same active molecule as Ambien (now available as a generic), just a different dosage and method of uptake, yielding five years of patent exclusivity for Transcept Pharmaceuticals to sell Intermezzo.

peace
knowledge is power!..........if you use it.....

BT

if we don't hold our doctors and by extension, big pharma accountable for the crap poison they peddle as the ""only thing to help PD"......then you get .....overcharged........sick.......and twice as screwed on the next round of nowhere meds that ultimately lead to DBS the holy grail.......big pharma takes your money for years on meds that ultimately fail and lead directly to expensive treatments , also controlled by big pharma......and the transfer of either YOUR WEALTH or....the taxpayers wealth, right into big pharma.......and wait for it.....big surprise.....we all will die anyway.....you can either transfer your own wealth to big P or you can make the taxpayer (all the rest of us) transfer our wealth to big P. I realize no one wants to hear this ....its easier to take what they say to...end up broke or use the taxpayer to pay for it and he/she ends up broke...and sit at home and complain of the lack of good treatment options and wonder why there is no incentive to find better solutions. Change starts with one individual.....I guarantee if everyone said "no more pills for me" the industry would find a better way to treat us......as it is we have only ourselves to blame.....


tough love

peace

Brer T

My report:
I have been doing half tablets since the first post. I take a full tablet at 6am. The other 4 Sinamet tablets I break in half, and take at two hour intervals starting at 9am.
I am enjoying much more even relief from tremors. I have fewer nap attracts.

My husband was diagnosed with PD at age 59 and now almost 68.
He also takes 25/100 Levo/Carbo Sinemet daily.
During the past 9 years except for the first year he has been taking
2 tablets, four times a day. At 7 a.m. 11 a.m. 3 p.m and 8 p.m.
For a few years now he has been sleeping a lot during the day and I noticed that after taking the pills, about 45 minutes later he is sleeping. The sleepiness has increased and I told the MDS about it and asked if we could change something to make his less sleepy.
He said there really isn't anything we can do as if he didn't take them, he would shut down . Also he has Atrail Feb. or irregular heart beat so he can't take certain things.
His memory is has also been affected and they think he has some dementia and also experiencing hallucinations. He also wasn't sleeping at night and they thought he was getting his day and night mixed up and this was causing the hallucinations. (they have slowed down now)
They wanted him to get his nights straight so put him on 12.5 mg. of Quetiapine which is a very, very low dose.
This medication does not affect the irregular heart beat.
I was upset about the sleepiness during the day that was still a factor, so he said that there is an experiment we could do that would be harder on me and might not work, but we could try for a month.
They said he could take the pills 8 times a day, meaning take it every 2 hours. It wouldn't change the dosage, but might help with the sleepiness Or there is also a drip that they could attach if he didn't pull it off.
So for almost 2 months I have been setting the alarm on my smart phone and it rings every 2 hours starting at 7 a.m.
His sleepiness has decreased and if he is stimulated more he is better. It's weird though the dementia causes him not to know me at times and that is hard on me. .
I know you don't have the extra problems he has, but changing or cutting the Sinemet in half shouldn't make it less affective. In fact at the beginning 9 years ago, he was take 1 1 /2 tablets 4 times per day.
The doctor said I could change the dosage, like going back to 2 at a time at some point in the day, but I did that one night at 7 p.m. and he slept for almost 2 hours. He also said to try to stay on a schedule so they know how to help him.
So you can see that the pills affect people but what are you going to do? You can't not take them as I said, you will shut down which is not an option.............
Good Luck with your medication. It sounds like you have a handle on things.
LYNN

That's true cutting sinemet in half or quarters is ok...as long as it isn't CR....then it messes up the CRdue to enteric coating. As for not taking pills I am quite certain most people here cannot just quit taking sinemet.....however......some folks might consider these things....1. stop taking one of your other twelve pills.....2. stop letting them put you on reworked reformulated drugs that already exist in the marketplace.....we can also encourage others to not let the docs flood them with pills either.......I can talk I'm suffocating from PD....literally....down to 43% lung capacity on a good day.....I will not spend my life dosing on meds that ultimately make me feel like shit.....I already feel like shit.....somewhere sometime folks will have to say enough! I don't know how any particular person will do that but its the only way to effect change. Of course your husband cant just stop sinemet......he relies on it now.......I understand that. But that doesn't change the fact that americans in general are overmedicated with knock off crap that extends patents.......and leads to possibly Demensia, hallucinations, sex addiction, gambling, fatigue etc etc etc......if that's ggod enough for folks then by all means take them.........if you feel you have to have them...take them.....I only know one thing....as long as we buy....they sell....and suck us dry.....my statement about everyone saying no pills is a generalization to illustrate a point ...its not a viable tactic....however not all people take meds that keep them alive.....tons of folks are on cholesterol meds that can kill you yet even under multiple lawsuits ans class actions the pills keep flowing.......im making a personal sacrifice.....I am committed to dying unless they come up with options that don't cost my wife our house or my kids their education....I refuse to take their crap and lobby against it constantly....my wife knows my mortality is eminently close....but whos isn't? Its easy to find excuses not to hold our government and big business accountable......I have some of my own......but that's why the country is falling apart and our healthcare is the laughing stock of the industrialized world....our seniors cant even afford food and heat....etc etc etc...........so I ask this WHERE DOES IT END? well for me it ends naturally, clear minded and not drugged up or plugged into a wall socket like a floorlamp...at least until that time at which I can no longer stand it. From what I have seen just in my uncle (DBS) and grandfather PD also.....the game plan isn't doing anything for them but leaving them sick, lethargic, in the hospital all the time and broke.....Lynnie I am not suggesting that your husband stop taking medss.........im suggesting that somehow somewhere someone is going to have to stop buying it or it wont change.....

Hang tough!

BT

Not taking meds is my option....and I exercise that option and will die loudly and actively going after big pharm.......Robin Williams is a hero. Not a victim in my mind. The dr will turn you into a victim overnight...... Even our dr's are a joke....they don't listen, they don't care, they only have a toolbox full of pills that some young sey drug rep pushed on him over bribes and free lunches. If folks like this sort of thing then great! I happen to not like it. The one Dr on my island is leaving...you know why? the christian hospital wont pay him enough soo he is leaving his boats and big house for later...after he makes more bank....to come back to.....I wisjh I had a job that paid me crappy enough to have a couple boats.........


BT