Lamotrigine patent expires this month

[Bernard]

Lamictal is used widely in the treatment of various forms of epilepsy. With the expiry of the patent in May it is likely that generic lamotrigine will be licensed and marketed soon after that date. Under current NHS rules for dispensing by community pharmacists, generic lamotrigine is likely to be dispensed against prescriptions which use the non-proprietary or generic name.

Treatment for epilepsy: generic lamotrigine

I'm not sure if this is going to be similar to the situation with Dilantin and generic phenytoin, but if you are taking it, it's probably best to get your prescriptions set to proprietary Lamictal until the generics are proven to be equivalent...

[ellgee]

Most physicians prescribing anti-epileptic drugs are well aware of the differences in generic drug compounds, most write the script and the "DO NOT SUBSTITUTE", however, the patiens should alwasy double check thier scripts before leaving the office and make certian the "do not substitute" is on the script. Also, double check the "pills" themselves, unless your script has been changed, the pills should NEVER look different.

[alivenwell]

I'll NEVER settle for the generics! They never did work, and probably never will work for me!

[Yves]

Hi everyone,

In France, generics for lamotrigine are ALREADY available. Problem is our medical care system now reimbourse(it pays, we don't need to pay for the medication) based on a generic price, which is about half and 2/3 of the original price => there is little we( the patients) can do as very few of us can afford to pay the difference.
I was (and still am) not very confident with the generic concept. OK the laboratory needs to get its R1D program and make profit but how come the generics are so "cheap" if they are really like the "real" thing?
However, I still have tried 2 of them. The first one was manufactured by Qualimed. The taste was just awfull. I asked my pharmacist if she could get another one. I now take the Sandoz version

There seems to be a lot of problems with the generics. I read that there are already 30 reports (just for the USA) reporting problems with the use of them (seizures come back, aura diseappears, ...)
I advise we share our experience about it

http://www.vidal.fr/medicament/lamot...imed-81277.htm
http://www.vidal.fr/medicament/lamot...ndoz-71103.htm