I went to pick up my refill of Entocort today and found that instead of paying $60 for 90 pills (30 days x 3 pills/day) I only had to pay $10!!! I knew that the Entocort patent had expired, but this was a pleasant surprise. The generic name is Budesonide. I got mine at Wal-Mart; I'm sure most pharmacies have it now.
This is really good news because many of our members don't have insurance. I think that this price is available without insurance at Wal-Mart.
I just checked my insurance drug prescription coverage and they are selling the generic now.
A 90-pill supply will still cost me $50, the same as Entocort did, but the insurance company writes that they will be paying an additional $615.85 for the prescription, or an individual pill cost of $7.40. That's about 1/2 what they used to pay for Entocort. That's more than you are paying through Wal-mart.
The insurance plan writes that if I want to get it through a retail pharmacy, a 30-pill supply will cost me $25 and they will pay $351.25, or an individual pill cost of $12.54. The pills have been costing about $4,000 for 270, or an individual pill cost of almost $15.
It sounds like it will be cheaper to get them through Wal-mart. Maybe I can stop stocking up on them.
Thanks for the heads-up! Now we just have to worry about the fillers, dyes, etc. in the generic.
Gloria
You never know what you can do until you have to do it.
Only if you have insurance. Without insurance, 60 is over $900.00. Doesn't help out all of us. And that's the generic. 60 now for the label, Entecort EC is $1100. Doesn't help me out at all. It is really shameful that these insurance companies are taking advantage of people when we all know how much the generic really costs.
I called Wal-Mart yesterday to inquire about generics without insurance and found you are correct. I was surprised. I'm sorry for those who do not have insurance.
One correction I would make to your comment, however, is that it is not the insurance companies that are making this so expensive; it's the pharmaceutical companies. Clearly even with generics, manufacturers are going to make a pretty penny on Entocort.
May I make one suggestion? I have a friend who has MS. He is retired and living on a limited income. He couldn't afford the MS medications he needed, even with insurance. So, he wrote a letter to the manufacturer of the medications he needs and asked them to make the meds available at a reasonable price (I don't know what that means, but I can ask). As a result, he got his medications at a price he can afford. Perhaps this would work by approaching the manufacturer of Entocort or one of the generic brands?
The patient assistance programs for Entocort died years ago, when AstraZeneca sold all marketing rights to the product to Prometheus Laboratories - all those programs providing free or subsized Entocort were discontinued by AstraZeneca, and Prometheus has never offered any assistance program for Entocort.
None of of us have ever been able to locate any other reliable, long-term, national or international source of assistance, either. There are possibly a few local, church, or community related possibilities, but usually, those are very limited, and have to be renewed each month, and require a re-application each month, including a doctor's statement. IOW, they are strictly a short-term benefit, (if you can find one) - they are not very practical in the long run, and Entocort is usually a relatively long-term prospect, if reliable remission is to be attained and maintained.
I have no idea if the manufacturer of the generic budesonide product that you mentioned has any plans for offering any patient assistance programs, but for years now, the only patient assistance programs available for the branded product have been a lot of trouble to track down, and utilize, due to their limited, short-term nature, and none have been available from the manufacturer.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
The fact that there is now help with the high cost of the steroid drug entocort is music to my ears. I'm one of the lucky ones with insurance. I'm hoping to not have another flare up sending me back to that expensive drug. I've been okay so far on the gluten-free diet. I confess though.....after reading all the online comments about metamucil being bad I still tried it. A friend told me this story. His 85 year old Aunt has had colitis since in her 30's and takes a glass of metamucil daily. So this week I've drank 1/2 a glass of (gluten-free) metamucil daily and so far have had a good result. More will be revealed.....the gut will know.
CoryGut
Age 71
Diagnosed with Lymphocytic Colitis Sept. 2010
On and off Entocort(Currently Off)
