Hydroxychloroquine - Plaquenil or Quinoric

[lin256]

Hi all,

I've been on Hydroxy for the last 3 months and was given another prescription today by my consultant. She put plaquenil on the prescription and said something about less side effects. But when I got home I discovered that the chemist has given me quinoric. Does anyone else know anything about differences in side effects? I don't want to take them back if its exactly the same, but the plaquenil sometimes upsets my tummy and I don't want to take quinoric if its gong to be worse.

[Hidden]

Hi - yes I can tell you what I've learned although if you look back at my questions you will see that I asked the same question a while ago. Firstly Plaquenil is the branded version of Hydroxy. Quinoric is one of the generics so unless it specifies on your prescription the pharmacy is obliged to use the cheapest version of Hydroxy.

This switch happened to me and I read up on the Lupus site about people's experiences and asked on here. Some people claimed that they felt queasy on the Plaquenil and some the other way round. In the end I tried the Quinoric and found it less nauseating for me. Then I had all over pins and needles and came off it for a week. This made no difference but I collected a new prescription and asked the pharmacist who said once again there was a change and this was Hydroxichloraquine Sulphate - anothe generic with the name itself and cheaper still. She said try it and see - although the fillers are probably different it would only make a difference if I was intolerant to one of the ingredients which would be unlikely.

So I found enough Quinoric and a few Plaquenil and tried each for a few days with the new generic too and my only observation was that I felt slightly nauseous after the Plaquenil. The two generics were just fine - there's really nothing between them. What I noticed is that taking it with a bit of milk rather than water sorts this out for me. Hope this helps. Tilda

Tilda x

[lin256]

Thanks Tilda, this is helpful. I have to take plaquenil in the middle of a meal otherwise it upsets my tummy, which is a problem when you don't feel like eating, so maybe this will be better. I'll give it a try maybe week on, week off between the plaquenil and the quinoric.

[Hidden]

Having tried all three different types of the same drug I must say that I think the differences in side effects have probably been exaggerated. Good luck. Tilda

[Hidden]

Hi. I have taken both. I was given Plaquenil the first time and Quinoric since and to be honest haven't noticed any difference. I haven't really had any side effects so can't comment on them.

Carolynx

[buddie]

Hi,

I have taken Quinoric, and the chemist has now given me Plaquenil with the same prescription. The container says hydroxychloroquine under the brand name, so I assume that the hydro is contained in both brand names. Neither has effected me adversely, and I hope you will be OK too. Best of luck. XX