Posted by stargazer2 on December 29, 2007, at 11:08:12
In reply to Re: Apologies, you're right, but ..., posted by UGottaHaveHOPE on December 29, 2007, at 1:02:04
Hi Michael...Unfortunately, one never knows when a med will be eliminated from production or do they?
I'm not sure how much the drug companies really take into consideration the patients using the meds, especially their history and lack of response to other meds before the one proposed for elimination. Unless something has changed since the early 90's when Marplan was discontinued by Roche, no information was communicated to the patients who relied on Marplan for complete elimination of their depression (my situation).
I still have an article written by a physican in CT (JAMA, 12/14/94-Vol 272, No 22) about how this decision caused the destabalization of a woman with Psychotic depression (7 hospitalizations in 10 years prior to taking Marplan). He obviously had not been notified of Roche's decision. Roche responded by saying they would supply Marplan for another two years for any patients needing the med.
I don't think my pdoc was aware of this and I think he thought I had a very good chance taking the newer SSRI's that had been recently released at the time. But I never found another med that helped me like the original Marplan did. Years and years went by with partial treatments and many , many relapses.
Hopefully, discontinuation of meds by pharmaceutical companies can't be randomly done anymore based purely on market share and profits..or can it? Does anyone know for sure about this?
It is very concerning that any drug someone is stable on, especially those older and less well known, can be eliminated and cause a relapse for any of those patients taking it successfully.
Emsam may not survive due to poor marketing and pricing, but that is not the patient's fault and they should not be made to suffer for the lack of planning on the manufacturer's behalf.
Having experienced the same thing with Marplan makes me very concerned if a decsion like this is
might also be made for Emsam.Stargazer
poster:stargazer2
thread:802978
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071225/msgs/803135.html