Ropinirole XL - brand name or generic?

About Parkinson's and health Treatments and therapies
1

I am on my first prescription of ropinirole xl, and at the hospital pharmacy they gave me repinex XL.
I need to speak to my GP surgery to get the next prescription - should I ask for the brand name to be specified on the prescription so I always get the same brand or will it not make any difference if I end up with a different brand?
I know the active ingredient will basically be the same but there could be a difference in the fillers used?

2

Hi Kira,

Requip XL is the ā€œoriginalā€ by GSK. Any other ropinirole is a generic and yes, they can act differently due to different recipes. I was once given a generic from the pharmacist and it released differently and was a bit unpleasant.

My neurologist started me specifically on Requip, however I do not remember if my GP indicated Requip on the prescription sent to Boots. That said, it was not until I was given a generic brand with poor results that I asked Boots to only fill my recurring prescription with GSKā€™s Requip.

You should be able to request a specific brand with your pharmacy. Boots have been excellent in my requests for specific brands on my repeat prescriptions.

Best wishes, MAnnie

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Thanks MAnnie

4

Hi Kira,

If you have been prescribed Requip the brand name I would most definitely stay with it and ring your Consultant if you have to and get him/her to ask your Gp to put on your prescription Requip. This is my pet bug bare. I take Requip and the Consultant put this on my letter. A few years later the prescription had at the bottom " you can no longer have Requip and added a generic ropinirole instead. After a few months my tremor was coming back worse than I had it originally. I am luck enough to have a Parkinsonā€™s Nurse as well as a Consultant. I had an appointment with the Nurse just before Christmas 2018 I asked him to ask the GP to put the medication back to Requip which he did , he gave me a form for the GP. The Nurse said he had never seen me like I was when I saw him. I took it straight to the GP and it was changed back . Just a few months ago I was faced with the same thing. I rang the GP and asked him to change it back. He didnā€™t want to and he got the practice pharmacist to ring me. Before he rang me I managed to speak to another GP who promptly changed it back. So now I have the Requip again. It is the people that are in the GP office like a pharmacist I didnā€™t know they had trying to save money He was trying to tell they are all the same I pointed that they were not. They have different fillers. Then he was trying to say that having a brand was was like having a placebo effect.
These people have no idea that different makes of the medication can act different with different people. Also what annoys me is they donā€™t even tell you they just do it so you have started taking the medication before you realise they have changed it.
I also take Sinemet and that was also changed this last time and was changed back by the very nice GP.

So Kira insist that you get the brand Requip or any other that suits you. You have to live with PD.

Love Sharon

1 Like
5

thanks Sharon. The first one I was given from the hospital was repinex and that seems to be ok for me - so I asked for that and as a ā€˜named genericā€™ they were happy to prescribe it, I think it must work out cost wise for them.