- This topic has 19 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 8 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Within the past few days Valeant has become Bausch Pharmaceuticals and it appears from this page they are now supplying 100 mg Brand Minocin:
https://www.bauschhealth.com/products/us-product-list?page773=2&size773=48
What’s more, they appear to be pelletized:
https://www.bauschhealth.com/Portals/25/Pdf/PI/Minocin-PI.pdf
This is great news for those of us who have failed miserably on generic or overseas Minocin substitutes. I have sent them an email asking if in fact this is true REAL Mino and waiting for a response. I also inquired as to any type of patient program as insurance has not generally covered brand Mino for several years.Fingers crossed; I will report back what I hear.
Wow, Redrock, that’s so awesome. Please do keep us posted!
Minocycline 100mg every other day with food...lots of food: Zydus brand. Celecoxib 200mg twice per day: Greenstone brand.
Awesome. Thanks for posting this redrock. It may be a godsend for many of us.
I sure hope I can now get Minocin. I recently failed on Par generic. Very frustrating. Only thing so far that works for me is Minocin and I think Torrent generic. I have failed on Teva, Watson, Par, and on doxycycline. I have 12 Minocin left. Started on those one time a day four days ago and already feeling better. On Par I had reached the point I couldn’t walk. I guess the positive in all this Minocin snafu is that I can pretty much recognize a Herx from a flare.
Cindy
So far, they have not replied to my email. Assuming this is in fact the real Mino, my challenge and that of many others I assume, will be to get our insurance to pay for it. Has anyone had luck appealing to their insurance company to agree to pay for brand instead of generic? I’m wondering what is involved.
I suppose the first step is getting the doctor to write a letter spelling out your failures with generics, etc. but obtaining this might be harder than it sounds. My experience is even the best doctors in general can be somewhat scattered, are quite busy, and not big fans of paperwork. And many medical offices are hopelessly disorganized. I’m inclined to draft the letter myself and ask my doctor to put it on his letterhead and sign it.
Hi Firstly –dont get your hopes up too much –Valeant only changed names —same old company –and very possibly same old practice -of listing it and not really having it or producing it —hope it isnt the case
Hi Firstly –dont get your hopes up too much –Valeant only changed names —same old company –and very possibly same old practice -of listing it and not really having it or producing it —hope it isnt the case
I sure hope you’re not right. I’m starting to get symptoms of breathlessness, making me wonder about pulmonary hypertension. I had conquered those high pressures with brand Minocin.
I’m starting to get symptoms of breathlessness, making me wonder about pulmonary hypertension.
I think it would be prudent to be proactive and seek out conventional treatment for that. Based on what you’ve told us so far, it appears that your disease is not being adequately controlled by the minocycline you are currently taking. You may believe that switching to genuine Minocin will solve this problem, but that may not be the case — there is a definite possibility that minocycline will no longer work for you. To prepare for that possibility, it would be wise to seek treatment for your symptoms now.
Phil
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
- Albert EinsteinPhil, you might be right but I’m not ready to give up on AP just yet. I might try and go back to zithromax. I did have one good lab on that when I was taking 250 mg generic every other day. But then three months later I was back to 1:1280. I wonder if I should have just tweaked that a bit rather than give up on it.
Does anyone what is the standard dose for this med and whether there is the same preference for brand Zithromax versus generic and whether 500 mg might be better than just 250?
Phil, you might be right but I’m not ready to give up on AP just yet.
I wasn’t suggesting that, only that you strongly consider taking a conventional medication, such as sildenafil or tadalafil, for your PAH (if that’s what it is). Later on, if your lab test results show that the antibiotic therapy is working, you can reconsider whether you want to keep taking the extra medication.
I might try and go back to zithromax. I did have one good lab on that when I was taking 250 mg generic every other day. But then three months later I was back to 1:1280.
Unfortunately, I strongly suspect that the bacteria are now resistant to azithromycin. They may have been partially resistant to begin with; if so, that might explain how they were able to become resistant so quickly. If you decide to try azithromycin again, I think you would have a better chance of success by combining it with the full dose of minocycline. However, I think there’s a better option to consider first.
I think you should talk to your doctor about treating you with a combination of minocycline and oral clindamycin. And I mean the full dose of minocycline (as it’s used for scleroderma), not pulsed dosing.
Phil
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
- Albert EinsteinI totally agree with Phil.A low pulsed dose might work if you catch this disease at the very beginning.Once it’s established it’s hard to get a grip on it.I did at least a decade on 200mg MINOCIN a day and saw some results.A few years into it I added 300mg clindamycin on the first day,600 the next,900 the next and 1200 the next.I Did this twice a month and once in remission I stuck with 200mg a day of mino.Only at the 14th year did I drop to a pulsed dose and for the last 3 years I only need 1 doxy every 2nd or third day.If I forget to take it,it only takes a week to start feeling tingling in my fingers or a slight tendon friction rub on my knuckles
Hmm well I can talk to the doctor about daily dosing but I did fine with pulsed dosing (every other day) for 6 years, as long as it was brand Mino. Are you saying I might be able to get away with generic mino if I take it every day?
Redrock – I had to weigh in here as my experience with brand Minocin was similar to yours. I was on brand for 6 years and in remission when Walgreens switched me to Watson generic. At that time i was only taking 100 mg. Minocin 1 x a day MWF. After six months on Watson all of my symptoms came back. I was able to get brand back and six months later I was back to near remission when I lost brand again and was switched to Teva. A month or two later and I was in bad shape. I was able to get brand again and six months later back to near remission. I must tell you that I did have to up my dose to 100 mg every day. Then, I lost brand again and was switched to Torrent. I was only on Torrent for a couple of weeks before I was able to get brand back, but I did notice it seemed to work. I later took Torrent periodically without any problems but in the meantime I stockpiled Minocin to last until last March. Then I switched to doxycycline hoping it would work because I was having significant hyperpigmentation. After six weeks I was in really bad shape so I switched to Par Minocycline tablets as I couldn’t get Torrent. Another six weeks and I was in seriously bad shape. 10 days ago I started taking the 12 Minocin pills I had left and within a week I was seeing improvement. Yes, they are expired but I risked it. I’ve had no side effects. Now, I just have to find a pharmacy that carries Torrent since I can no longer get Minocin.
The reason I tell you this is because during my four year saga of on again off again of Minocin I was told by a few that Minocin (Minocycline generally) might no longer be working for me. Maybe the bacteria had become resistant. I trusted my gut and my body and now 3 times I’ve learned that Minocycline, specifically Minocin still works for me. Most generics do not. I’ve learned over the last four years that Minocin takes as long to work as I was off of it. So if I took some other generic for six months then it’s going to take six months for Minocin to work. Therefore, I expect Torrent will bring me back to remission or near remission in five months. I do want to emphasize that my dose needs to be everyday. I’ve tried 2 x a day but herxed too bad.
Hope this helps you. I know you are searching for a generic that works for you like Minocin did. If you try one and you’re not sure if it’s working I’d say after a week or two you should see some slight improvement and then you might start herxing. At least that’s what happens to me. If you find yourself steadily declining then it may not be working. I want to stress too that not all generics work, not even if you take them everyday twice a day. At least for me Teva, Watson, and Par did not work. Torrent seems to work almost exactly the same for me as Minocin.
Thanks for this insight, CMS12. I’ve yet to find anything that works for me aside from the green pelleted Mino brand from years ago. It never occurred to me that perhaps the Minomycin (New Zealand brand) I was taking may just not have had time to work. I had to switch away from it as the batch was going to expire so I obtained Aknemin from the UK. Maybe my next test will be better. I was expecting to get an improvement after the first 90 days like what happened in 2010 when I first started AP. But perhaps I’ve become resistant as you suggested.
So just to clarify, you are taking one 100 mg capsule every day? I have never herxed so I wouldn’t know what that is. I’m pretty much asymptomatic and rely on blood test (Anti-Centromere) and echocardiogram (pulomary pressures) to see how sick I am.
I want to stress too that not all generics work, not even if you take them everyday twice a day. At least for me Teva, Watson, and Par did not work.
It looks very much like it is an individual thing because for some people it doesn’t seem to matter, and even when it does matter not everyone has the same experience. Quite a few people seem to like Torrent minocycline capsules, which is one of the reasons I have recommended them. I’ve been taking them (the 50 mg capsules) for almost a year now. They are noticeably weaker than the Par tablets I was taking, and because of that I take an extra 50 mg (250 mg total) three times a week to help compensate for the difference. Other than that, they seem fine.
Torrent also makes minocycline tablets. You might want to try them the next time you’re unable to get Torrent minocycline capsules. I took them several years ago when they were Ranbaxy minocycline tablets. I liked them, and it seemed to me that they might be slightly better than the Par tablets. And, as I recall, Vinny also liked the Ranbaxy minocycline tablets better than the Par tablets. Of course, your experience may be different.
Phil
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
- Albert Einstein
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.