Generic medications-hypoallergenic & cheap

[BrooklineBiker]

Hi everyone,
I am seeking hypoallergenic generic prescription medications. By way of background, I am allergic to a lot of foods: dairy, wheat, corn, soy, eggs, etc. These foods often turn up as inactive ingredients in many medications. I have dealt with the issue by getting medications compounded. The out of pocket cost has been a huge bite. That said, my HMO will no longer pay for the compounding after December 31. The drugs I take are pretty widely used and the HMO would rather I take a generic. I visited my local branch of a national retail pharmacy & sought help. I was told that -for the drugs I want- there are too many drugs on the market for them to search for a medication that is free of bad inactive ingredients. E.g., there are numerous manufacturers of generic Nifedipine. Any recommendations on how I may find a "clean" generic at low price? Thanks!

[Elliot]

You can certainly call the manufacturers individually.

[BrooklineBiker]

You can certainly call the manufacturers individually.

Hi Elliot,
Thanks for your response. Just to clarify, there are apparently hundreds of manufacturers of Nifedipine. I am hoping for a database that would quickly let me sort through the inactive ingredients. Amazon for example lets you sort through hundreds of e.g., headphones by price, manufacturer, color, user reviews, etc. A database or book that works along the same lines for inactive ingredients would be a major help.

[astvilla]

http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/search.cfm?labeltype=all&query=nifedipine

There's no way to sort through like Amazon and select which inactive ingredients you want or don't want. There isn't enough demand to set up that kind of service (majority of people are okay with any type of medication) and it'd be pretty complicated to set up. Just click on the drug and look at the description. You can also call the United States of Pharmacopeia, they can provide good resources and information on where to look or where, they set many standards on drugs and chemicals.

I understand why your retail pharmacy would say they can't search. They are way too busy for you and you're not worth their time, also your conditions are not possible for them to meet lol, they can't actually do anything.

Your best bet to find a "clean" generic and I mean clean, custom to what you want and your allergies is to visit or call a compounding pharmacy. They will compound medications to your need. The problem is that they are not FDA approved so they haven't been proven to be effective (though in theory they should be) and they are NOT CHEAP from my experience, their costs are too high to compound medications at a cheap price and insurances do NOT cover compounded medications for the most part because why cover something not proven to work? You could ask for a price though and get an idea. There's nothing really cheap/free out there for those with allergies. If you're taking it orally then don't worry about the recent compounding scandals like NECC, that's more intravenous or with needle. Your gut and liver provide many defenses before something goes into your blood. People can eat contaminated food and not die but you can't inject it cause it passes all those defenses like liver and gut and acid

Curious what is your diet then? Sounds like you can't eat anything? Just paleo diet?

Hope this helps.

[Elliot]

You can certainly call the manufacturers individually.

Hi Elliot,
Thanks for your response. Just to clarify, there are apparently hundreds of manufacturers of Nifedipine. I am hoping for a database that would quickly let me sort through the inactive ingredients. Amazon for example lets you sort through hundreds of e.g., headphones by price, manufacturer, color, user reviews, etc. A database or book that works along the same lines for inactive ingredients would be a major help.

You're really making this harder than it has to be.

I literally typed "nifedipine manufacturers" into google, ignored the ones that were trying to sell me bogus drugs, and this was the first result: http://www.drugs.com/nifedipine-images.html

If you take the time and effort to click on each image, the manufacturer is listed. Call them until you find one that works.  Inactive ingredients are listed, but unless you know which ingredients are derived from what, that won't help. Unless you have some sort of free ecyclopedic database you could use to look them up.... except that already exists and is called wikipedia.

[BrooklineBiker]

http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/search.cfm?labeltype=all&query=nifedipine

There's no way to sort through like Amazon and select which inactive ingredients you want or don't want. There isn't enough demand to set up that kind of service (majority of people are okay with any type of medication) and it'd be pretty complicated to set up. Just click on the drug and look at the description. You can also call the United States of Pharmacopeia, they can provide good resources and information on where to look or where, they set many standards on drugs and chemicals.

I understand why your retail pharmacy would say they can't search. They are way too busy for you and you're not worth their time, also your conditions are not possible for them to meet lol, they can't actually do anything.

Your best bet to find a "clean" generic and I mean clean, custom to what you want and your allergies is to visit or call a compounding pharmacy. They will compound medications to your need. The problem is that they are not FDA approved so they haven't been proven to be effective (though in theory they should be) and they are NOT CHEAP from my experience, their costs are too high to compound medications at a cheap price and insurances do NOT cover compounded medications for the most part because why cover something not proven to work? You could ask for a price though and get an idea. There's nothing really cheap/free out there for those with allergies. If you're taking it orally then don't worry about the recent compounding scandals like NECC, that's more intravenous or with needle. Your gut and liver provide many defenses before something goes into your blood. People can eat contaminated food and not die but you can't inject it cause it passes all those defenses like liver and gut and acid

Curious what is your diet then? Sounds like you can't eat anything? Just paleo diet?

Hope this helps.

Hi Fewaopi,
Yes, I am on the Paleo diet. My version is the Low FODMAP Autoimmune Diet, which is about the most restrictive.
I do want to refocus the discussion to my original post. Compounding medications is extremely expensive, at least here in Massachusetts and in nearby New York. I have been getting compound medications until recently. However, as of Jan. 1, Blue Cross will no longer cover them for me. So, I need to find some clean generics.

[BrooklineBiker]

You can certainly call the manufacturers individually.

Hi Elliot,
Thanks for your response. Just to clarify, there are apparently hundreds of manufacturers of Nifedipine. I am hoping for a database that would quickly let me sort through the inactive ingredients. Amazon for example lets you sort through hundreds of e.g., headphones by price, manufacturer, color, user reviews, etc. A database or book that works along the same lines for inactive ingredients would be a major help.

There are lists of allergy-friendly medications out there. There may not be a need to call dozens of manufacturers. For example see this list. http://www.glutenfreedrugs.com/newlist.htm. It has one of the medications I am taking but is missing a few others. I am hoping to find similar lists. Does that help in thinking about resources?

You're really making this harder than it has to be.

I literally typed "nifedipine manufacturers" into google, ignored the ones that were trying to sell me bogus drugs, and this was the first result: http://www.drugs.com/nifedipine-images.html

If you take the time and effort to click on each image, the manufacturer is listed. Call them until you find one that works.  Inactive ingredients are listed, but unless you know which ingredients are derived from what, that won't help. Unless you have some sort of free ecyclopedic database you could use to look them up.... except that already exists and is called wikipedia.

[Abe]

Look for oral solutions, as they usually use some combination of water, ethanol and glycerine as carriers. In regards to your multiple food allergies, have you been evaluated for celiac sprue or inflammatory bowel disease? A lot of my patients who have one or other of these diseases were initially thought to have severe food allergies but were not properly evaluated to confirm the diagnosis. For example, a true wheat allergy is somewhat rare and requires biopsies of the small bowel to confirm. In any case, good luck to you!

[bdoubleu]

If you do actually need your medications to not have specific things in them, I would think your insurance would approve compounding with a letter from your physician verifying this need.  It may take awhile to get approval, but would be worth checking into.

Also, you could call the insurance company and have THEM find you a list of manufacturers that provide acceptable versions of each medication you take (most, if not all, insurance companies employ pharmacists to do various things, such as this).

OR, find a different pharmacy to go to.  Chains typically don't want (or don't have staff) to put in the time for one patient with very specific needs like this.  Find a smaller, non-chain pharmacy (if possible), and you might get different results.

Source: I am a pharmacist.  When I was a student, I did a rotation at a mail order pharmacy, and a patient had sent a message in requesting they fill their prescriptions with "gluten free" medications.  So that was my project, to find acceptable medications.  I had go through all the manufacturers this mail order pharmacy possibly carried, contact the manufacturer, and compile a list.  It took a long time, mostly to hear back from the manufacturers (they didn't always have a list of gluten-free meds readily available).  But it has been a few years, and these kinds of allergies are popping up all over the place, so manufacturers may be more prepared to supply that information.

[BrooklineBiker]

Look for oral solutions, as they usually use some combination of water, ethanol and glycerine as carriers. In regards to your multiple food allergies, have you been evaluated for celiac sprue or inflammatory bowel disease? A lot of my patients who have one or other of these diseases were initially thought to have severe food allergies but were not properly evaluated to confirm the diagnosis. For example, a true wheat allergy is somewhat rare and requires biopsies of the small bowel to confirm. In any case, good luck to you!

Hi Abe,
Thanks for the tips. I have not been checked for inflammatory bowel. I went to a nationally known allergist so I *assume* she checked me for Celiac sprue. I know she evaluated for me Celiac in general.

[BrooklineBiker]

If you do actually need your medications to not have specific things in them, I would think your insurance would approve compounding with a letter from your physician verifying this need.  It may take awhile to get approval, but would be worth checking into.

Also, you could call the insurance company and have THEM find you a list of manufacturers that provide acceptable versions of each medication you take (most, if not all, insurance companies employ pharmacists to do various things, such as this).

OR, find a different pharmacy to go to.  Chains typically don't want (or don't have staff) to put in the time for one patient with very specific needs like this.  Find a smaller, non-chain pharmacy (if possible), and you might get different results.

Source: I am a pharmacist.  When I was a student, I did a rotation at a mail order pharmacy, and a patient had sent a message in requesting they fill their prescriptions with "gluten free" medications.  So that was my project, to find acceptable medications.  I had go through all the manufacturers this mail order pharmacy possibly carried, contact the manufacturer, and compile a list.  It took a long time, mostly to hear back from the manufacturers (they didn't always have a list of gluten-free meds readily available).  But it has been a few years, and these kinds of allergies are popping up all over the place, so manufacturers may be more prepared to supply that information.

Hi BDoubleu,
Thanks for the recommendations. I will call Blue Cross & try to throw the issue back in Blue Cross' lap. I should explain some history. Blue Cross periodically stops paying for various classes of medications or devices. They claim in most cases to be willing to pay for the meds with a doctors' note. I ask the MD to write the report & they submit. BCBS gets the report & then says they never got it or denies the claim, saying they need a report. This can drag on for months before I give up or the doctor backs off.