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Switching from brand name to generic felbamate
Wed, 02/24/2016 - 04:28Has anyone successfully switched from a brand name drug, specifically Felbatol, to generic? Our insurance has changed over the years which means my son's medication costs have as well. He has been taking brand name Felbatol for over 7 years and has been seizure-free. It started out at $40 and has gradually increased to $300 per month now. We have been round and round with the insurance company, doctor has written "no substitution, brand name only" on the prescription, etc, etc., but since there is now a generic available, we have to pay the price difference between the generic and brand name. At this point, yes, we can afford to pay $300 per month but at some point, as it continues to go up in price, we will not be able to. We spoke to his neurologist about switching and he said as long as we make sure that the generic is coming from the same manufacturer, my son should be fine. However, I am scared to death to switch him. His seizures were horrible: tonic-clonic, atonic, and myoclonic, multiple times per day. I don't want to ever go back to that. But, at some point, I feel like we will have to switch to generic due to rising costs.
So, with all of that being said, has anyone else had any experience with this?
While I haven't taken
Submitted by just_joe on Wed, 2016-02-24 - 15:50
While I haven't taken Felbatol I do know that name brand meds do cost. When Keppra came out I was put on it. My insurance was thru the company I was working for and they changed it. I was paying 985.00 a month on keppra. Docs assistant always said no generic. Doc know my situation and after I asked him about using the generic he wanted it checked out since he had other patients that could benefit but the cost was too much. I did the testing for him. The generics have always worked for me. Any name brans I used did have a generic and I used them all. That 985.00 went down to 535.00 and doc had other patients use the generic keppra too. I have used both name brand and generics for the past 50+ years. The only difference between name brand and generic medications is the fillers or non active ingredients. Availability of Generic Felbatol Generic Felbatol is available in the following strengths: •Felbamate 400 mg tablets •Felbamate 600 mg tablets •Felbamate 600 mg per 5 mL oral suspension (liquid). Generic Felbatol is made by only one company: Amneal Pharmaceuticals. Is Generic Felbamate as Good as Felbatol? All generic medications must undergo certain tests to compare them to brand-name medications. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) then looks at these tests to decide if the generics are equivalent to the brand-name medications and assigns a rating to each one. An "AB" rating means that the FDA has determined that a generic medication is equivalent to a brand-name medication. The generic Felbatol versions currently available have an "AB" rating, meaning they should be equivalent to Felbatol. I hope this helps Joe