MINOCIN VERSUS MINOCYCLINE EFFICACY

[mschmidt]

MinocinMan,

I am thrilled to hear that you are doing well, and that your experience with Dr. F has been good. I wish you continued success in your treatment, and please do let us know about your progress. Thanks so much for your kind words–it really means a lot.

Maria

[MINOCINMAN]

@mschmidt wrote:

MinocinMan,

I am thrilled to hear that you are doing well, and that your experience with Dr. F has been good. I wish you continued success in your treatment, and please do let us know about your progress. Thanks so much for your kind words–it really means a lot.

Maria

I actually Dr. S in Iowa, and I do appear to slowly getting better. Maria, thanks again for all of your comments when we spoke.

[elaine e]

My husband was on branded minocin for many years. He was in complete remission for a long time. Then unbeknown to us and just before our daughter’s wedding almost 10 years ago an assistant in his rhumatologist’s office authorized the pharmacist to supply generic. Back then there was more than one brand of pellet type and it was not unusual for the capsules to have different colors from the last refill. We didn’t think anything of it. My husband became so ill that he could not get up out of bed without help, needed a walker and was totally disfuntional. He could not go to work and was in constant pain, fatiugue, etc. His Rhumatologist put him on heavy prednisone so that he could make it down the aisle. Then it dawned on us to open a capsule and sure enough white powder poured out. We had been through a double blind study.

For my husband, the generic was like taking a placibo. I spoke with the pharmasist and he spoke about generics in general, not specifically minocin. He said that although the active ingredient might be the same the fillers aren’t and often affect the absorbtion rate. In addition he said that the manufacturing process is often different. The ingredients of branded drugs are put through mixing machines and through quality control several times before being filled into capsules. The generics are put through the machines and QC only once and sometimes that is not good enough to insure that every capsule is the same. Less expensive ingredients are sometimes imported from China on the generics and sometimes the entire drug is manufactured in China where QC is not always good enough. No way for me to verify any of this information but I don’t think he would make this up. Regardless of the reasons, for my husband the generics did not work at all.

[MINOCINMAN]

@elaine e wrote:

My husband was on branded minocin for many years. He was in complete remission for a long time. Then unbeknown to us and just before our daughter’s wedding almost 10 years ago an assistant in his rhumatologist’s office authorized the pharmacist to supply generic. Back then there was more than one brand of pellet type and it was not unusual for the capsules to have different colors from the last refill. We didn’t think anything of it. My husband became so ill that he could not get up out of bed without help, needed a walker and was totally disfuntional. He could not go to work and was in constant pain, fatiugue, etc. His Rhumatologist put him on heavy prednisone so that he could make it down the aisle. Then it dawned on us to open a capsule and sure enough white powder poured out. We had been through a double blind study.

For my husband, the generic was like taking a placibo. I spoke with the pharmasist and he spoke about generics in general, not specifically minocin. He said that although the active ingredient might be the same the fillers aren’t and often affect the absorbtion rate. In addition he said that the manufacturing process is often different. The ingredients of branded drugs are put through mixing machines and through quality control several times before being filled into capsules. The generics are put through the machines and QC only once and sometimes that is not good enough to insure that every capsule is the same. Less expensive ingredients are sometimes imported from China on the generics and sometimes the entire drug is manufactured in China where QC is not always good enough. No way for me to verify any of this information but I don’t think he would make this up. Regardless of the reasons, for my husband the generics did not work at all.

Thank you for comments. From my research it appears that the quality control (QC) has improved over te years, and the AP doctors have increased the dosage to adjust for the possible absorption rate differences.

DR S and Dr T see no problem with generic at this point, and Dr T will be having an article about the issue of Name brand versus generic in the RBF next newsletter.

Very sorry to hear about your husband flaring on such a special day. I am sure he was very sad and heartbroken.

[Anonymous]

Hi
you send me a message but i am unable to reply. you can contact me via my email mickscionti@gmail.com many thanks

@Mini wrote:

I am also currently seeing Dr T who has prescribed generic Mino for me because according to him it’s not covered by insurance commonly and is exhorbitantly expensive. May be that’s why he is not prescribing the brand any more… ❓

[Author]

Posts