Briviact scarcity?

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Bernard

Bernard

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My wife is trying to refill her Briviact Rx and it's becoming a nightmare. I've already gotten an emergency supply 2x from our local pharmacy as they waited on a shipment to come in. It never came. Pharmacy says they are on a national back order.

My wife is calling every pharmacy in our area and no one has any in stock.

Wife only has pills in hand for her lunch dose. We may be out of luck for her evening dose.
 
Yikes, Good luck getting the order filled. I take Briviact 3 times a day.
Think I’ll go check my supply.
 
Doc ended up writing an Rx for XCopri. Wife started with half a pill last night. We're in uncertain territory now (transitioning meds).
 
That's scary! Is there a generic equivalent? I guess it's kind of too late now considering she is switching to XCopri. Well, I hope everything works out with the new prescription!

Speaking of checking supplies, I have so many bottles of pills now... The doctor increased my dosage a while ago, but then increased it again slightly a couple weeks later (after another blood test was done). Each time he wrote a new prescription it was sent automatically to the pharmacy for a 3 month supply, so I've been sitting on over 6 months worth since that happened! I take a pretty good amount each day, so that's a lot of pills haha. I suppose Levetiracetam is probably a much more widely available medication though.
 
Bernard said:
My wife is trying to refill her Briviact Rx and it's becoming a nightmare. I've already gotten an emergency supply 2x from our local pharmacy as they waited on a shipment to come in. It never came. Pharmacy says they are on a national back order.

My wife is calling every pharmacy in our area and no one has any in stock.

Wife only has pills in hand for her lunch dose. We may be out of luck for her evening dose.
Click to expand...
 
when something like this takes place very first thing I do is reach out to pharmacy letting them know the amount of medication left as there may be a need for change in prescription for desperate times when nationwide back order takes place. It is a rare situation but it could be something considered in certain circumstances.

Has the pharmacist checked local hospital pharmacies to obtain this medication?
 
Local pharmacist only checks their computer which has their store network inventory. We called other stores ourselves and her neuro checked with the in-network hospital pharmacy. No one in our area has any.

Since she ran out of Briviact and is on starter dose of XCopri:

Day 1 (finished Briviact at night, started half pill 25mg XCopri)
Day 2 partial seizure @ 5pm
Day 3 partial seizure @ 5:40pm
Day 4 (today) - gran mal seizure about half an hour ago (9am)

:(
 
Bernard, I am so sorry to hear that... It is hard to read your post actually. It must be a fear that many of us have, that we might run out of medication. I sincerely hope that your wife's neurologist can find a solution very quickly.
 
The solution was to switch to XCopri (an AED which my wife has never used). The problem is that you need to titrate up (start with a small dose and gradually increase) so she isn't on a therapeutic dose yet.
 
Stacy ended up having a second gran mal seizure last Sunday around 5pm. She had a headache all day long on Monday. She seems to be doing better today. Her doc upped her dose of Aptiom (eslicarbazepine) for now until she is at the therapeutic dose of xcopri.
 
That IS scary. Having the seizures is the worst. For me, Xcopri has reduced my complex partials more than any other AED. The longest seizure-free period I've had was around 7 or 8 months. I'm SO used to breakthroughs starting after a while that I joke about wondering how long it will be before my brain "develops immunity" to the new AED or dose.

I know what you mean about Rx scarcity/unavailability. With my Xcopri Rx, when getting it through the local pharmacy (CVS), I can place a refill order ONLY 5 or 6 days before I RUN OUT. Then, they often MAY NOT EVEN HAVE IT IN STOCK until I'm down to my last dose! The ONLY thing that upsets me about Xcopri is cost. When my neuro wanted to raise my dose by 50mg, our insurance expected US to pay $700 out of pocket for a 1 MONTH supply until some issue was worked out/met--I refused the dose hike.
 
Stacy has done really well (ie. no seizures) since the last gran mal last Sunday. She's still not yet at the therapeutic dose of XCopri, but we adjusted he diet slightly (less sugar and more protein for breakfast) and the Aptiom (eslicarbazepine) dosage adjustment seem to be working OK for now.

I'm really curious if the Briviact back order situation is an ongoing issue or was a temporary blip in the supply chain.
 
Glad to hear that her seizures are starting to come under control with the new medication at least. Interesting article you posted too. If that was in March, I wonder if maybe it actually has become more scarce since then?
 
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