A few months ago, my neurologist started me on Stalevo with the intention of extending the time between doses of Sinemet. At the time, I was taking a Sinemet tablet every two hours. Stalevo extended that time to three hours. I was okay with it.
When my initial prescription ran out, my GP put me on Sastravi because it costs half as much as Stalevo. That's fine I thought, it'll save the NHS a bit of money. The ingredients are identical. I have been taking Sastravi for four weeks and have just realised that first thing in the morning before I take my medication, I find it much more difficult to walk. The brand of pills I take is the only thing that has changed.
Do other people think they may have such problems with generic drugs?
When i started i was on 'sinemet' as a starting dose as it was moved up i was put on generic , I noticed straight away it was Not as effective at a higher dose than the lower dose of 'sinemet' and i told them so, I wouldnt accept it, After all whats the point? of medicine if your given something ineffective??. it's not ethical why bother with it in the first place if all they are bothered about is a few Pence, and futhermore if thats the consideration why bother in looking for a cure?. what price humanity?.
So i was put onto 'madopar'. and i'll hang onto it.
I was offered 'stalevo' but was told that would also be Generic, I said 'no thanks'.
I cannot see why a supplier would go to the trouble of creating a copy drug, boasting identical ingredients to a main stream brand, only to screw it up by mixing it with a filler that is not chalk or some such inert substance.
I think there is something wrong with some generic drugs. Perhaps suppliers are doing "A Volkswagon" and submitting pukka drug copies just to pass the entrance exam, then supplying the patients with crap.
“I can see there being mechanisms put in place to make it more difficult to prescribe more expensive drugs.
“I don’t think patients would lose out very significantly. I think they may lose out because they have a drug which has to be taken more often or has more side effects, but it will not effect their health.”
One wonders if we have too take a drug more often because it is less effective or we get more side effects from How does that not effect our Health, it's just a false economy ??.
If, as did my OH, suffer a generic drug that had a lesser beneficial effect than the original, (and when we mentioned this it was noted that they had to have Requip rather than Ropinirole), then you may agree with me. Same basic ingredient but maybe not in its entirely identical in composition.
Our consultant, our PSN, and lately nurses at the memory clinical ALL agree that generic drugs MAY not be as effective in controlling symptoms as the original. I even suffer this with one of MY problems; one brand works well another does nothing.
Why do you think that generic drugs are cheaper??? There has to be a reason, other than they are out of licence and so can be manufactured far cheaper because it does not involve the research that went into the original with all the cost of testing and trials. Once out of license they can be manufactured by any firm, both here and abroad to copy, mostly abroad it seems and who knows what they contain!
Having the same problem now with a medication prescribed by the memory clinic and for the last few months have received THREE different brands. IF this medication is not found to be effective then it will be stopped. How can we evaluate its effectiveness if we have a different brand each time??!!!
My husband has advanced Parkinsons he has taken stalevo for many years. His prescription was recently changed to sastravi, his Parkinsons seems much worse - not being able to stand , move as well as he used to. Has any one else found 'problems' since change from stalevo to sastravi?
I have found that both with my medication, and my OH who has Parkinsons, a change to a generic form of the medication can affect symptoms and the efficacy of the drug.
My GP has just suggested I swop to Sastravi as it's cheaper than Stalevo. He assured me the ingredients were exactly the same but cheaper. I am now wondering if I should have agreed. Does anyone find no difference or is it really very different?
Hi emswife - I think they call this other source a generic medication, I'm on Ropinirole and was put on a generic one cos it was cheaper, but it did not do anything to help me at all, and asked GP to refer me back to original meds. It's worth a try to know whether it will agree with you but ask if you can be referred back to original meds if not.
I am also taking dopamine agonist Ropinerole with its branded/ trade name Requip XL
since the patent ran out it has become available in generic form one of them being Equinox .
I was great on Requip XL brand but generic one vomiting every day felt really ill for first 2 hrs after taking Equinox , back on Requip XL. Now make sure prescription names Requip XL on repeat
I understand generic drugs to be as much as 80% cheaper than the original patented version (branded) I am no expert but formed the opinion from reading articles on the net, the difference between the two types can be around 3% in absorption, performance. slight difference in additives , these however can make a big difference to how our bodies react.
If you do well on a drug fight for it. generic or branded.
