Posted by Ame Sans Vie on May 10, 2004, at 5:23:42
As the title suggests, today marks my fourteenth day taking brand-name Klonopin. There has just been so much conjecture over the years regarding the relative potencies of various generic clonazepams and the Roche brand, I had to try it for myself. I have been taking clonazepam for approximately three years now, with only brief periods without it.
Until fairly recently I'd been using the Purepac generic as it is the easiest to obtain (via Walgreens' drive-thru). I can't believe I'd been sacrificing efficacy for convenience all that time, but of course hindsight's 20/20. Several months ago I called around to find the pharmacy which stocked Teva's version of the drug, which I had heard was much closer in effect to the original. I was rather disgusted to find out it was Wal-Mart -- no more convenient drive-thru service, lol. Still, faithfully, I've been forcing myself to walk through that godforsaken place twice monthly both to drop off and pick up my prescription. There is no doubt in my mind that Teva's clonazepam is the most potent/bioavailable generic on the market, and I know a lot of others will back me up on this. I find little, if any, difference between Purepac, Mylan, Watson and Eon clonazepams, all of which I feel are indubitably inferior to Teva's version.
I mentioned my desire to give Roche Klonopin a trial run to my pdoc two weeks ago, unaware that a simple "DAW" on the Rx was all that was required for Medicaid to cover it. Well, most of it anyway -- I get 120 2mg tablets per month and Medicaid (in Texas) will pay for certain preferred brand names up to (typically) 100 pills. The additional 20 tablets I was fortunate enough to purchase for about $15 at a mom-and-pop pharmacy a few miles outside the city -- a far cry from the ~$55 Walgreens wanted! And by the way, the fact that Klonopin is a preferred brand-name drug on the Texas Drug Code Index speaks volumes about its superiority, IMHO. Very few off-patent branded drugs are covered without prior authorization (i.e. a diagnosis and very good medical excuse from your doctor, and these claims are oftentimes denied). As of just a few months ago, now all adults over 21 on Medicaid require prior authorization to receive drugs containing dextroamphetamine -- for some reason I haven't been hassled about this yet (I turned 21 in January), but I'm sure it's a matter of time; I'm due for an Adderall refill tomorrow. :-|
So, 14 days on the genuine (totally cool-looking, I might add, lol) Roche Klonopin and thusfar I'm certainly singing its praises -- it's absolutely worth the extra $15 and 20-mile drive to that little pharmacy. Actually, as an aside, I don't think I'm ever going to go back to the big chain pharmacies now... this place has this mild camphorated smell to it, very small, very personal... very reminiscent of the olden-days' drugstores. Or so my mother says; I wouldn't know, lol. Besides, they have your prescription ready in five or ten minutes and the pharmacists are *much* more knowledgeable and caring than those I've had to deal with in large chains. But I digress.
I guess I'll just go ahead and wrap this up as quickly as I can:
Purepac, Eon, Mylan, Watson -- decidedly *not* worth the decreased cost; even without Medicaid, I'd pay for Klonopin instead of messing around with this junk.
Teva -- a step or two up from the other generics in potency/bioavailability, but seems to wear off more quickly than Klonopin.
Roche Klonopin -- what can I say? Whereas I was taking 3mg AM & PM + 2mg @ noon with Teva's version, I now achieve the same effect with 2mg TID, which allows me to take 2mg before bed. This has helped tremendously with morning muscle stiffness and mild nocturnal bruxism which creeps up on me as my Adderall wears off late in the evening.
A pretty useless post in general, but maybe someone will derive some benefit from it!
~Michael
poster:Ame Sans Vie
thread:345283
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040510/msgs/345283.html