my insurance stopped covering name brand vyvanse

downhomechunk [chicago]@midwest.social to ADHD@lemmy.world – 44 points –

And guess what is on back order at every nearby pharmacy? I'll give you a hint: it's not the $300 per month name brand.

So I guess I switch to Adderall xr tomorrow?

21

Oh it gets even worse. Past couple months I’ve gotten generic vyvanse, and it just straight up doesn’t work at all. Talked to my doctor, he looked at it, and it’s from “sun pharma” in India. It’s either counterfeit or missing ingredients because he said over the last month about 20 other patients said the same thing about the same exact pills.

I’m extremely lucky that my insurance covers name brand meds, so he wrote me a “dispense as written” script and I got legit vyvanse now and it actually works.

Point is even if you could get generic vyvanse, it might be fake ass dogshit that doesn’t do jack.

Yikes. I've been in take what I can get mode since the generic came out. Sometimes I was getting brand name, sometines generic. But I never noticed a difference. And I definitely would have!

Seems like it’s a mostly recent development. He said pills from India or china tend to either not work or be less effective, based on how his patients report to him.

As a counter-anecdote, I’ve had 30mg generics from Sun and Mylan, and both have been the same or better than the name brand Vyvanse.

Not discounting your experience, I’m sure there are differences in the formulation that probably affect some people and not others.

Oh man i am really glad to hear that. It’s possible we just got a bad batch in Ohio that time, but it was two months in a row so who knows.

@nick @thomcat
Also, different medications interact with people differently. It’s also possible that the way your body interacts with the same medication can change over time, which is why some people have to change medications or dosage amounts. All of this has happened to my daughter. Name brand Adderall makes her ill. We’ve found a couple of generic manufacturers that work well for her, for now. The fact that we have to scrabble to find them is another level of frustration.

I pay £10 a month regardless of what medication it is. And will never have the concern some medication is “no longer covered”

That's great, but of course it only applies to medication covered by the NHS. Otherwise it's not prescribed.

Has there been a supply shortage on generic Vyvanse? I've had my generic Vyvanse filled the last few months without issue.

There seems to always be shortages on Adderall or Vyvanse. The government limits how much can be produced, so the supply is not based on demand. If the major insurers stop paying for the name brand, then demand for the generic will go up even more.

Well that's dumb. They should allow the production to be a total supply number, rather than by the manufacturer, so generics can pump out as much as they want to the overall limit and undercut the brand name supplier, forcing their hand in lowering the price.

You've described capitalism and not the corporate socialism our pharmaceutical overlords get to enjoy. In many cases, the same company produces both the name brand and generic versions of a drug.

1 more...

You guys have options? In Greece only concerta, Ritalin and Strattera are approved...

I know the struggle, I hope you can find a combination that works for you 🙏