Posted by zor on March 12, 2004, at 12:04:09
In reply to any thoughts about generic antidepressants?, posted by Jhall131 on March 10, 2004, at 18:36:28
Yes! Regular, non-extended realase Effexor (the Flat tablets, as it's generic venlafaxine) are available as a generic in the U.S. now..... this does NOT mean it will be much cheaper.
Take a look at generic Prozac. It took a while for it's price to fall and at least 2 generic manufactures and more generic competition for it to fall in price even more again--and it's still expensive! I believe, but am not totally sure, that each generic manufaturer has an exclusive 6 month period, where no other manufaturer may introduce other generics to the market. This the reason it takes a while to get many generic makers of certain medication once they lose patent.
However, the Xr version of Effexor (the caps) are not available in generic. But you said you take 75mg 2x a day. If you take the XR version of Effexor, you could just get the 150mg cap and take it once a day...as it's extended release. This usually saves about 40% for me on meds.
If you want to check prices and generic availability go to a search engine and put in walgreens and go to thier pharmacy section. Punch in the med name... do this for both venlafaxine and Effexor XR and see what the prices are. An alternative is call your pharmacist and ask.
Hope I could help :-)
poster:zor
thread:323044
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040308/msgs/323612.html