Anyone take generic URSO? There is a huge ... - PBC Foundation
Anyone take generic URSO? There is a huge price difference from brand name.
I am taking 900mg of URSODIOL since I was dx in '07. My co-pay is for the generic med. level which is why I believe that. As to a difference in side effects I really don't know, being I am on several other meds, also. I am in the US and am on Medicare so I am blessed with not having to pay for name brand most of the time plus I also have a RX "insurance". Usually here the pharmacy will give you the generic brand unless your doctor directs otherwise.
Hopes this helps. -
ga
Thanks for your reply.
i got ursodiol at Walmart 500mg 3 months so-ply $277.00
Mine are DR Falk and I get them from ASDA / Walmart, I have been to other Chemists where they have given me un named drugs ( generic ) I just don't go back to them anymore.
Thanks for your reply Linda. Can you tell me why you did not like the generic drug?
Hello everyone.
As far as I understand on finding out about generics with drugs, here in England, the brand I get - URDOX - aren't generic. The GP writes out a script which just states URSODEOXYCHOLIC ACID which I believe is generic.
I also read in the enclosed leaflet for the Urdox that they are only licensed for gallstone use tho' they are used for PBC.
I think (tho' not 100% sure) that Ursodiol is the American brand and as far as I can find, it's not generic.
At the end of the day it is all about money.......!!!!
Hello again.
Well I have just had another internet snoop and it appears that Ursodiol in USA IS generic, apologies. Very confusing!
Here is a website that informs patients with regards to urso.....
igenericdrugs.com/?s=Urdox - United States
My doctor prescribed URSO DS 500 mg - the cost of 90 tablets which is a months supply is $266.00 in Canada at Pharmasave. I went to Costco got the generic drug Pms-Ursodiol C 500 mg for $150.00. The pharmacist says it is the same drug URSODEOXYCHOLIC ACID.
Hello again.
I was curious regards the generic question here still.....
I had read sometime last yr now about doctors here in the UK and generic drug prescribing. It is about money but also the Government have apparently been questioning the 'clinical value'. (I quote this off
parliament.uk/briefing-pape...
'Prices for branded (on-patent) and generic (copies of off-patent brand) drugs are set differently. Thought generics tend to be cheap, branded drugs are more expensive (sometimes very), and their prices are not necessarily based on their clinic value.'
I know when I saw a different GP Feb 2011 for the urso review he dropped in the cost of the urso ('Looking at £90 there.....') but I just let that bit go over my head. Totting up the yrs I have been on this earth (I'm just 48) I've hardly had any prescription drugs, my first late husband contributed 21yrs into the tax system and National Insurance Contributions and was still a working man when he died so he has never had the benefit of the NHS as prescriptions he needed to get by and still go to a full-time job continuously he had to pay for them, never entitled to them free. Then of course our State won't have to pay him a retirement pension. Same occurred with my late dad, worked all his life until redundancy at aged 54 and by the time he was 56 he had died. I have always had to pay prescription charges and currently do and one day it may come that I do not have to, I will refuse to feel guilty. After all my husband now has worked all his life and even doen 10yrs in the armed forces.
I know I get annoyed at the system here in England that seems to brand everyone the same. I know a little about the GP system from a patient visiting, it is all standard and doesn't seem to be a case of 'that's not going to work so we'll skip that bit'. Makes me wonder how many patients out there have several prescriptions to actually get well from something that is cureable when from the start they prob could have taken something on a prescription that maybe dearer for the NHS here but would have saved a lot of money along the way!
Think that has got a few things off my chest......!!!!??
