Entocort Price Increase

[Gloria]

I'm refilling my Entocort prescription and noticed another price increase. I pay $90 for 270 tablets; my insurance pays $4012.62, for a total cost of $4102.62.

According to my calculations, the cost for each pill comes to $15.19. Yikes! At this rate, I would be in the Medicare donut hole after filling just one prescription of Entocort. That's why I'm ordering it while I still have company insurance.

Gloria

[dgshelton]

They probably went up because there is a generic now. You know, they haven't made enough money already, so they have to cover those prescriptions they'll lose to the generic. LOL. It is utterly ridiculous!

Hugs,

[Sheila]

Entocort is available through Canadian pharmacies for about $175 a month. I ordered it for my mother when she was alive and went into the donut hole. I still order one drug from them that my insurance will not pay for. For at least 12 years I've used the Granville Pharmacy in Vancouver, B.C. for prescriptions. I ended up in the donut hole a couple of times and have found this pharmacy to be excellent. I researched as many Canadian pharmacies as I could on line. Found that this one was used by at least one state for its employees and several other municipalities also used it. Since my remarriage, I don't have to worry about the donut hole since my husband has excellent insurance. Thank God for that because you certainly would end up in the donut hole real quick at those prices. Anyway, the Canadian pharma phone number is 1-888-730-3338. I know a lot of people are nervous about ordering drugs this way but I've never had a problem with them. They call to check on you if you forget to send in a refill and are genuinely helpful. They even filled prescriptions for my dog and sent her Christmas cards.

[Polly]

Yikes is right!

Wouldn't it be fun to know the actual cost per pill to formulate it? Maybe it's best we don't. TMI. Sigh.

Gloria, how are you doing now?

Love,

Polly

[tex]

The prices of all drugs seem to be increasing much more rapidly, since the passage of the "Health Care Reform Bill". I have never used Entocort, but I take a natural thyroid hormone supplement, to treat hypothyroidism, and I take Plavix, (a blood thinner), and BP and heart rate drugs, (to minimize stroke risk), and Metanx, (a prescription megadose of vitamins B-12, B-9 and B-6). These are all pretty low-tech drugs. Last year I hit the doughnut hole in October - this year I hit it in May. I still think that the "Health Care Reform Scam" was one of the cruelest hoaxes ever perpetrated by a government in modern times, but that's just my opinion.

Tex

[Sheila]

The pharmaceutical companies wrote the Part D, prescription drug portion of Medicare. They wrote it to benefit themselves, of course. Our Congress is not trustworthy when they receive the money they need to get elected from the industries they either regulate or have considerable control over. Greed is a big issue and power is the other issue. Put greed and power together and you can throw ethical government out the window.

[tex]

Tex

[Sharaine]

Yikes is right! I will look for the information I have on contacting Entocort for their coupons. I'll post it when I get my hands on it. Have plans this weekend, so it will be Monday before I can do it.

Hope you are feeling good, Gloria.

Sharaine

[tex]

Sharaine,

Many members buy the generic version at the online pharmacy at the link below, for only 45 cents per capsule, plus shipping. That's only $121.50, (plus shipping), for a 90 day supply, (270 capsules). You don't even need a prescription, from an overseas pharmacy, and this is the same generic product that's available from Canadian online pharmacies, (except that Canadian online pharmacies require a prescription, which seems rather odd, since prescriptions written by U. S. doctors are not valid outside of U. S. borders).

http://www.alldaychemist.com/1283_Entocort-EC

And in case you're wondering - no, I'm not on their payroll, nor affiliated with them in any way. I just feel that U. S. prescription drug users are being ripped off royally, by the major drug companies, and the U. S. government regulatory agencies just smile and look the other way, (as they greedily count their money).

Tex

[Gloria]

Since I'm stocking up, I'm considering ordering additional pills from All Day Chemist. We never know how long we have until the government decides to enforce the law prohibiting us from getting drugs from another country. We also don't know what the life span of Entocort is, do we? I don't want to have too many on hand in case the potency expires.

Polly,
I'm at a crossroads right now. I haven't had a good week, and I'm not sure why. I went to the water park with my grandchildren today and kept worrying that the gas I was passing would be more than gas and they'd have to close the pool. Can you imagine the embarrassment of that happening?

I'm giving it another week and then I'll be considering whether to maintain on Imodium or go back on Entocort. I've been off Entocort nearly three months, had ups and downs, but have been able to get back on track by eliminating more foods. I can't eliminate any more without sacrificing too many calories and/or nutrition.

Gloria

[Sheila]

I just went to the alldaychemist website to check out their price for Celebrex and Pennsaid. The price is amazing for Celebrex!! When I looked at FAQ, it said that prescriptions are required for drugs that require prescriptions in the home country. Perhaps this is a new rule. Thanks, Tex for the info. It is scary cheap and I wonder how they do it.

BTW, I tried to make GF pasta using an Atlas pasta machine. The dough is not elastic enough to go through the rollers without sticking a bit and then falling apart. I couldn't roll it thin enough to make an acceptable spaghetti. It was more like spaghetti sticks. The taste is okay, color is gray, texture is good but hard to roll out thin enough. I have a heavy marble rolling pin at the other house and will try to make it one more time using the heavier pin. Has anyone tried making homemade pasta? I got the recipe from "100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes". I don't care for the Tinkyada brand and prefer bionaturae but that is $4.99 for 12 oz.

[Polly]

Gloria,

Bummer about the bad week. And no ideas why? That is what is so frustrating about this disease. Did you have increased stress last week? I know that always affects me. I hope it's not "breakthrough" from being off of the Entocort for 3 mo. It was so encouraging that you did fairly well with Imodium alone. How much Imodium are you taking?

What are the latest foods you eliminated? Were they green foods on the MRT? It has been 6 mo. for me now since I started MRT/LEAP. I have recently tested a few of my yellow foods (tomatoes, white potato) and have had immediate reactions. I wonder if I'll ever be able to tolerate them.

And how upsetting to be in a water park and worrying about D. I don't think that fear ever really leaves us. And only a fellow MCer can truly understand the feelings of terror and helplessness that we experience out in public.

Hang in there and best wishes for an immediate improvement. Keep me posted, please. I have always followed your progress with great interest because it truly is MUCH MORE difficult for us double DQers to manage our MC.

Hugs,

Polly

[tex]

When I looked at FAQ, it said that prescriptions are required for drugs that require prescriptions in the home country. Perhaps this is a new rule. Thanks, Tex for the info. It is scary cheap and I wonder how they do it.

That's why I try to avoid looking at FAQs on websites. That may just be in there as sort of a feel good, butt-covering gesture, (similar to the policy followed by Canadian online pharmacies), but I've never heard of anyone who actually had to submit a prescription in order to place an order with Alldaychemist.

I'm pretty sure that Alldaychemist sources most of their drugs from India. India is the world leader, in the production of generic drugs. Lest you think that I'm talking about cheap, "watered-down" versions, I'm referring to the same generic products sold in this country, by all the major pharmaceutical companies. Most of them are made in India, and they're the exact, same products that we get when we order from a supplier such as Alldaychemist. The only difference is that Big Pharma doesn't get their markup out of drugs ordered from Alldaychemist, (and, of course, Big Pharma requires their own packaging).

Drugs are cheap. It's Big Pharma's skills at merchandising them, that runs the price up into astronomical figures.

Tex

[Rosie]

When I looked at FAQ, it said that prescriptions are required for drugs that require prescriptions in the home country. Perhaps this is a new rule.

I recently ordered for the first time from alldaychemist just last month and saw that FAQ too. I was puzzled, because I had read here that you didn't need a prescription to order from them. So I took a picture of the prescription and put it into a word document intending to attach it to the order. But when I went to order, they never asked for a prescription anywhere on the order form, I never sent the prescription, and the order was mailed to me without it. I actually received it in less than a week! I think that the FAQ is just a "fig leaf" to cover themselves, and is meaningless.

Rosie

[Sheila]

I order Celebrex from Vancouver, B.C. I receive the generic version, made in India and mailed from India to Switzerland and then to me in the U.S. Other countries are eating our breakfast manufacturing most of the stuff we use. We are the ultimate consumers.