GENERIC NEURONTIN FROM INDIA ???

[angelll]

If you allow my advice, stop giving richness to multinational enterprises and buy generic drugs, they have exactly the same ingredient as brand names. I found the following Indian pharmacy ***censored*** some months ago, which works very well and ships the medicines to any country for only $10 cost, with sealed packaging and expirations dates.

Regards and health.

[moderator note: angelll, you managed to post this exact same message as a first time post on 3 other epilepsy related forums today. Unless you plan to stick around and be a contributing user, we will consider this a spam advertisement.]

[Bernard]

Hi Angelll, welcome to the forum!

I'm not sure how much longer it will be legal (if it is right now) to buy drugs from foreign based internet pharmacies. Congress is on a mission to shut down the practice AFAIK.

The Courier-Journal - Wednesday, February 23, 2005:
Federal effort

Under identical House and Senate bills introduced last week in Congress, Internet pharmacy Web sites would be required to clearly identify the businesses, doctors and pharmacists connected with the sites.

The Web sites also would have to show the states where the online pharmacy's doctors and pharmacists were legally authorized to write and fill prescriptions.

The legislation seeks to bar Web sites from sending customers to doctors for prescriptions without ever being seen by those doctors.

The measures would give states new powers so state attorneys general could shut sites anywhere in the country, not just in their home states.

The enforcement power would be similar to the powers states have to regulate telemarketing, according to the bills' sponsors.

"I strongly support efforts to regulate the sale of prescription drugs that are sold through the Internet and hope Congress will act quickly before this growing problem becomes even more widespread," Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, R-5th District, said in a statement yesterday.

John M. Rector, general counsel for the National Community Pharmacists Association, said he would welcome new laws tightening controls on Internet sales of prescription drugs.

"It's not like buying cookies," Rector said. "It will make it a lot easier for the feds to get their hands on domestic sales of these drugs."

Drug Sales on Web Targeted

[Bernard]

Here's an op-ed piece on the subject:

Star Telegram - Sun, Mar. 06, 2005
Marv Shepherd, director of the Center for Pharmacoeconomic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, notes that Canada obtains drugs "from over 100 countries including Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil and China." Foreign-made copies of American drugs often lack the quality controls of their U.S. counterparts.

A recent article in the journal Science notes that when Zocor, a powerful cholesterol-lowering drug manufactured in the United States, was compared to generic simvastatin copies bought over the Internet from Mexico, Thailand, India and Brazil, researchers found that active ingredients in the imported generics were not uniformly mixed -- an error that could dilute their effect.

Developing nations such as India frequently violate U.S. patents by producing low-priced copies and then undercut the American original by exporting those copies en masse to nations around the globe. In the process, those nations reduce the incentive for U.S. drug makers to develop new drugs simply because nobody is willing to pay any of the costs for research and development if they can legally avoid it.

Writing a prescription for better drug prices

[Rocking4Epilepsy]

Throwing my 2 cents in here
Angell is nothing but, a spammer....
I just deleted their post on Healingwell.com( I mod there)

[Bernard]

Yes, it sure looks that way. But I'll leave the post as it afford the opportunity to talk about the subject of internet pharmacies (minus the link drop of course).

[Axa]

Hello,

my neurologist doesn't approve of generic drugs - with just few exceptions (I forgot which producers and from which country, but they are surely European). He claims that studies show generics are not always of the same quality. He prescribes me exclusively original Tegretol CR and Neurontin.

Axa

[Bernard]

Good point Axa. There is documented evidence that generic phenytoin does not metabolize into the blood stream the same way that the brand name Dilatin does:

The recall of a generic phenytoin (PHT) formulation used in the Veterans Administration (VA) medical system allowed us to evaluate the question of biologic equivalence systematically in a relatively large number of patients at the Bronx VA Medical Center. Serum PHT levels were 22-31% lower during the period of generic intake as compared with levels in the same patients receiving Dilantin.

Comparative bioavailability of a generic phenytoin and Dilantin

Oct. 25, 2004 -- Don't switch from brand-name Dilantin to a generic version of the antiseizure drug -- or from generic to brand name, epilepsy specialists warn.

The warning comes after epilepsy patients at MINCEP Epilepsy Care, in Minneapolis, Minn., suddenly began having severe seizures. The patients' seizures previously had been kept under control with Dilantin treatment.

What happened? An investigation by Ilo E. Leppik, MD, MINCEP research director and professor of pharmacy at the University of Minnesota, found a clue. A change in State of Minnesota health plans required the use of generic drugs instead of brand-name drugs. Without notifying their doctors, the health plans switched the patients from brand-name Dilantin to a generic version.

Generic Epilepsy Drugs Not the Same

[Bernard]

Well, here is an Indian pharmaceutal company that just got approval from the FDA to market their version of Neurontin as a generic here in the USA:

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (RLL) announced on Friday that the Company has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Generic Drugs, to manufacture and market Gabapentin tablets in 600 and 800 mg strengths.

The Office of Generic Drugs, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has determined the Ranbaxy formulations to be bioequivalent and have the same therapeutic effect as that of the reference listed drug Neurontin of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Ranbaxy wins final approval for neurotropic drug

[thegreekguy]

Yasou,
If anyone is thinking about using generic meds it is advisable to first off check with your doctor.
Some people, my self included CANNOT use generic.
I was on namebrand dilantin first, then namebrand Tegretol.
I was for a time on generic silantin due to financial problems. I had a seizure as a result, I would advise against generic.
I've also been to India, it's a great country but I'm not sure I'ld trust getting my meds from there as India's a bit behind the times.

thegreekguy

[Bernard]

Hi greekguy, welcome to the forums.