10/325 Quailiest Verses Watson Verses White Or Yellow (brand Name Norco) (Top voted first)

Hello Hydrocodone world:

My experience is this. You can not beat Name Brand scored NORCO 10/325. However, my experience is Watson is a softer compound, & works faster. Now, the other generic NORCO 10/325 (36 01) scored other side. This is made by QUAILITEST: many people say they suck, because in fact, it is a harder compound to digest/desolve, therefore not getting a good feeling,but the slight slower release makes Quailiest (NORCO) actually kill the pain more so than Watson (GENERIC) 10/325. The watson have the edge, however the Qualitiest last longer & are so dang close, only a Dog may know the difference. Personally me, & all the 4 companies that make generic NORCO can stick it. Your/My Dr. is going to request the yellow dye, I do get allergic reactions minor,but enough to b**** about. So I will be getting a lot of paper work, and I will end up getting Yellow NORCO, as long as the Dr. request patient has allergic reactions, not to the dye, but rather various fillers, as well. And me & My g/f have Identical insurance plans for meds. And the G/f got the real deal NORCOS. My Dr respects me & I respect my Dr. And dr.'s know the difference between spinal issues & hop heads or some of us have both. LOL (JOKE).

Now the HOT tip - NORCO Now makes two Brand name NORCO 10/325 , some will be yellow & or white. Watson makes NORCO ( BRAND NAME) wich are yellow. Also Watson now makes the 1/325 NORCO it is white.

Bottom line (brand name 10/325) you will start to see in white & yellow, as we are now seeing, allergic reactions to the yellow color dye. Also 10/325 NORCO are usually yellow, again they are moving to white tablets, and are currently selling both colored (WATSON GENERIC) norcos. Same goes for Brand name NORCOS, Yellow & white.

They are taking the yellow dye out both Name brand & watson brand NORCOS. You may see yellow & or white in your Watson 10/325 also Brand name 10/325

Ask your Dr for a over ride due to alergic reactions, most insurances will cover , if the findings of the request are found to be true. But now they are making the same company, same drug, Brand name & generic & in both white & or yellow (watch out for (CVS pharmacies) they carry s*** loads of s***, that is totally the s*** of all s*** & works like s***. Request brand name to your Dr & ask nicely & all the above will not apply. Watson's are etched in most peoples mind, however the Quailitest & watson are just how fast or slow the absorbtion rate/time to get into the blood stream. If you really want this Norco in your blood stream like instantly? LOL Check in to a 28 day drug rehabb & ask this? what is the fastest way to get any drug into my blood stream? Than youll be safe for 28 days, if they let you out. (JOKE).

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Hi Brian,

That's quite an elaborate post on your experience with name brand Norco. I had a good laugh reading your description of CVS pharmacies Lol.

Based on what I've been hearing from others, the newer white Norcos appear to be a lot less effective than the previous yellow ones, despite not having the dye in them. Because of the high number of complaints, I also have to wonder if Watson (Actavis) has been cutting the amount of Hydrocodone or Acetaminophen in their products. They say the only difference is that there's no dye added, but it's hard to believe that when everyone else who's actually taken it seems to think otherwise.

I know the active ingredients in generics can vary up to 20% or so, but is this proving to be the case with brand names as well?

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I too have noticed that the white norcos do not work. I used to take the yellow and they worked good relieving the pain. When I took the white It just wouldn't do anything felt like an Aspirin. I kept thinking is something wrong with me this just can't be in my head. Something just is not right. So I go online looking for answers and realize just about everybody is saying the same thing. Now either thousands of people are crazy or Watson is a bunch of lying frauds. I think we all know the answer and this isn't right. It is bad enough they are getting way over strict with all the laws. Pain pills are hard enough to get for those really in chronic pain and now they are going to give us a false drug? Just doesn't make sense. People that do this need to be punished and feel the pain that we feel. Why fix what isn't broken? People always have to ruin things for themselves. Just leave it be and stop messing with the formula. Before you know it they won't make pain meds anymore. What is wrong with this country anymore. God Bless everyone!!

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Yes to Deb. There doesn't seem to be a decent generic of Norco now. So sad when they manipulate meds via binders and formula to remove certain effects when it is those very effects that help contribute to the lessening of pain for so many true chronic pain sufferers. Regulators have gone the wrong way in addressing addiction problems. Instead of messing with meds that actually work they should focus on those who aren't supposed to be getting these. They're going about it the wrong way. They say they're trying to stop accidental death, but by messing with the meds legit users end up taking the wrong things or in the wrong quantities in order to kill legit pain, because the meds they took for years with success are now made different and don't work right. Now, many are turning to street drugs which is very bad. The med boards and psychologists have actually created a worsen problem as they restrict more and more. Just look at the accidental death rates increasing instead of decreasing. When regular doctors had the authority to rx for their patient properly, the death rates were less. Now, family mds are afraid to prescribe due to regulations. This whole system isn't working like they thought it would. The only ones who knew it would end up bad are the docs who have been regulated to death. In the end, it's the real patients who suffer.

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What pharmacy carries the yellow 10s the white ones are a joke?

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The Qualitest are one color-YELLOW and these are the ones to ask for BEFORE they get filled. I always check before the pharmacy fills the bottle now, that they are not white, but the yellow only. They make anotation on my file YELLOW NORCO ONLY!.

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I have been taking Percocet, Percodan, etc., since the 1970's; Watson's generic formula worked just find UNTIL Actavis took it over and changed it's formula to be "abuse deterrent". Like so many other people, we all seemed to have the same reactions in common so I am re-posting what I did back in March 2014 for the benefit of others again. FYI: Actavis' generic percocet had NO effect on my chronic pain and I never experience the following severe reactions before (and it's been over 40 years everyone) - PLUS had I had a severe reaction which I listed in my letter to Actavis, the FDA, etc. Here's what my symptoms were:

1) No pain relief; had severe withdrawal symptoms
2) Stomach/digestive/GI problems;
3) Extreme anxiety
4) High blood pressure
5) headaches
6) Loss of appetite
7) Nausea
8) Abnormal drowsiness
9) Lack of focus
10) Blurred vision
11) lightheadedness

Of course Actavis DENIED that the formula changed as to the pain killing ingredients but they lied so I filed complaints with the company, the FDA which you can do on their webpage, Here's my letter to the Actavis Corporation, to the major principal, media relations and the investors (which is out of Ireland by the way and it took over a huge amount of US medications). They requested I give them the Lot # and the pharmacy number (ID) to file my complaint:

ACTAVIS CASE NO. 4074032? FOLLOW UP 4/24/14
topvnjintake,media relations,investor relat.

Actavis Medical Affairs Department
Cindy Ryan - Supervisor, Quality AssuranceInvestigation Group
800-432-8534
Case #****
[email protected]??
Ms. Cindy Ryan:

I received your letter of April 14, 2014 wherein you indicated I did not provide the Lot number for the subject medication.

? Lot #*** Oxycodone/Acetaminophen 10-325 Tablet

? Rx: **** Filled:3/14/14 (initial complaintSat, Mar 29, 2014 at 3:09 PM)

? When I first contacted Actavis and spoke with several departments, I obtained the lot number from Walgreen's and provided it to Actavis three times - also provided it on my complaint with the FDA as the A333 caused me to suffer severe physical side affects and had minimal affect on my chronic pain to the point I had to go through withdrawals.

? I was unable to obtain another prescription from my pain management doctor because of the DEA guidelines for controlled medications. I have been on pain medications for many years and am very familiar what relief to expect and never suffered the adverse side effects your product did to me for over a month.

I expected that such a large pharmaceutical company would basically ignore my complaint and I have very little power to make a change - but I have contacted numerous agencies, news reporters, etc., who make consumers aware of a defective medication like this. There are thousands of people that had the exact same reaction to A333 as I did so we really need to protect our future need for quality pain medication.

? The Watson generic formula was successful for many years - it worked for those of us who suffer with lifetime severe chronic pain.

? Whatever changes Actavis made cause horrible side effects and yes, the oxycodone and acetomenophine amounts may be the same, whatever other ingredients you put in it cause the pill toprocess differently in the body and do not provide the pain relief as the Watson formula did.

We now have such limited options and our need for quality pain relief per our doctors' diagnoses and treatment, it would seem that a company like yours would fight for consumers like me to provide a quality medication to provide effective pain relief without making us sick. I am too ill to deal with the stress of this problem and don't believe Actavis will actually do anything to about my complaints but at least I made my concerns know to you. You should be providing a quality product and I see every day how many more people are suffering because of this same issue. Maybe someone will actually investigate it.

Thank you for your attention

I NOW TAKE BRAND ONLY PERCOCET which I am now finding out is costing a fortune; I'm researching it now. But FYI, I did research this a lot last year so I'll repost this as well:

Quoting NPR "Just because a pill is abuse-deterrent doesn't mean it's harmless. "A pill that's harder to abuse isn't necessarily less addictive," saysAndrew Kolodny, head of psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center in New York, who studies policy on opioid drugs. People also get addicted by swallowing pills, he notes. "One of my concerns is that this new rule could set up an arms race for the pharmaceutical companies to create abuse-deterrent versions because they have patent protection," Kolodny told Shots. "You'll see marketing to prescribers that these pills are less addictive. That could potentially make things worse." Copyright 2014 NPR.

well, off to find out why brand name Percocet 10/325 is now at a cost of over $6,000 for 180 - a one month's supply for me. I certainly don't know how any of us can keep doing this this way without a fight.

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Hi David,
I've have found Watson's to be much inferior when compared to Qualitest. I have switched pharmacies 3 times now, when they have switched to the cheaper(?) brand. In fact, I now drive 20 miles out of my way, in order to stay with Qualitest.

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I have taken qualiest norco 10/325 for quite sometime when rite aide switched to the white ones i got. Absoutly no relief,being told it was all in my head i stood my ground, when hubby was switched to white ones, of which this man has never taken pain meds, KNEW THE WHITE ONES TOTALLY SUCKED!!! Talking with our dr, i am always completly honest, my dr agreed about generics being different , i called around to different pharmicies and found safeway stll has the yellow norco, i switched boom!!! No more pain and the pain relief and hold pattern enabled me to function,

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Davids right-I do the same thing. Here in Washington state, the new white ones are simply garbage-with or without the dye and they should be pulled and an investigation done. This is simply a ripoff plain and simple. I'm 65, chronic pain and have taken the Qualitest Norco 10/325, 4 times a day for about 8 years. They gave me the white ones and I felt nothing. Tylenol works better! I now only get the yellow. I just wrote the company and they said they have no plans on getting rid of these yellow ones. But, they said Walmart has them-they dont.

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Which state are u located? I'm in so cal Newport Beach area & I went to cvs, walgreens & rite aid all if which said they will only carry the white mallinckrodt which don't work. I have lupus and get severe pain need the qualitest yellow ones... Who carries??

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I still get the yellow as I will totally refuse the white ones. You have to call all over hell to find them, but then, your golden. My new pharmacy has seen a huge upswing in business due to the fake white generic Norco-How the drug companies figured on pulling this off is incredible to me. There is such a huge difference between the white and yellow that you would have to be either comatose, or otherwise half dead to not feel the difference.

Yellow works-white don't. And they're completely ripping off the American taxpayer by getting away with this. Me and millions of other retired people depend on Medicare to pay for the majority of the drugs we all take every month. I have $120.00 every month deducted from my SS check to pay for Medicare, so it's not free. And the government pays the rest to the insurance company that covers Medicare patients. So, these big drug makers are using the national drug problem to steal money from the American taxpayers. They figured that the government couldn't b**** when they began cutting the active ingredients in half, and started selling them for less then the yellow pills.

They tell the government and Medicare that all they removed was the yellow dye, and that's because some people are allergic to food coloring? WHO WOULD THAT BE??? How big is the problem? It isn't! And that, my friends, is the big scam. They lie to the feds, and say they removed the dye to save lives-BS! They then say they reduced the codeine levels, after nobody believed the yellow dye lie. So, basically, like any street dealer would do, they cut the product, to increase profits, and we, the public, can just kick rocks, because they could care less if the damn pills really work or not, or if people are now doubling up the amount they have to take to function.

I have been taking the exact same amount of pills every day for about 10 years. 4 10/325 Norco a day. If I have extra pain due to cold weather or anything else, I will pop another one, or two that day. But, basically, along with Tramadol 4 times a day, I am able to make it through the day ok. I'm not going out dancing or doing any bull riding any time soon, but I can make it up and down the isles of the grocery store without resorting to the electric obese carts. You know, the ones for people to lazy or fat to walk. They load them up with junk food, then when done, they walk fast to the car to hurry home and gain more weight. Hey stores, shoplifters love those carts-just sayin.

Anyway, the drug makers are pushing pills that don't work, and for how much longer? Have any of you b****ed to the store about these bogus white ones? How about writing the pill maker themself? Or have you written to the people in charge? That would be the FDA.I have written to them all a few times. It will take everyone complaining about this to see any changes made. Because, if they don't change the formula back to one that works, then what will happen is that people like me, with real pain, will simply go to a higher strength pain medication. That would be the morphine drugs, like MS Contin. And, the problem with that is, it's super addictive, as well as the only drug that's used during surgery to kill the pain.There is nothing stronger they can give you before doing an operation. Morphine is the top of the line-nothing else is stronger.

More opiate addicts should know that when they need an operation done, and they will sooner or later, the chances of actually numbing the body, to prep for surgery, is going to be very hard to do. So, you don't want your body to be used to the drug, or it won't work. So, if you take it every day, the chances of it working during surgery are slim. The doctor would need to give you a huge dose to kill the pain for surgery, and that can be deadly. This was told to me by a trusted doctor. So, keep on taking the much milder codeine as long as possible.

They have now put Norco and all the other Hydro drugs into the same schedule as morphine! What a lame move that was! The difference between morphine and codeine is HUGE! Like night and day. To make everyone have to get a brand new script every month, is flooding the doctors offices with unwanted amounts of traffic and does nothing at all to curb the drug problem in America.

Whoever came up with this idea in the FDA or DEA should be fired! This rescheduling will have no positive effect on the drug problem, and will do nothing but bog down the doctors with useless paper pushing. Instead of simply having the nurse call in the scripts, you now have to go burn up gas and tie up traffic every month, to go get the new refill on paper. I wonder how many more accidents this has caused already, or how many more millions of gallons of gasoline have been put in the air, or how many hours are lost at work etc. for people to stop what their doing to run across town to get a slip of freaking paper?!! How stupid is that? Here we are in the age of phones and faxes and we still need the refill put on paper? And this will keep kids from doing drugs how exactly? What am I missing here?

Luckily, I use a pharmacy that has the e-verify system in place, and my doctor can call in my refills. But, most pharmacies don't yet have that, so people need to trudge across town for a stupid piece of paper. Someone should lose their damn job over that one. Whoever said that putting hydrocodone in the same category as morphine, should not be working for any goverment agency right now! To demand people with pain to run back and forth to their doctor for nothing more then a piece of paper is completely asinine, and a complete waste of time and gas. Hey, write your congressman or woman, and b****! It's real easy for some i**** sitting in a plush office to tell a person who's wracked with pain that they need to get to their doctor for a piece of paper, when it is so much easier to call or fax that same thing to the pharmacy.

So, the white pills are garbage-don't except them. They will not work on you! Call all around until you find the yellow ones, and, use e-verify, then go see the doctor for that piece of paper, and tell him the new pharmacy and be sure to say that they use e-verify. Your doctor will love you for doing this. It saves them alot of time to use e-verify over writing the script out every month, and having to see a waiting room fill up with people there, just to get a stupid rx. And, tell the doctor you won't take the white pills, as they about as effective as Tylenol for pain. Good luck-fight for your right to live as pain free as possible.

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I've been taking the same yellow Norcos, at the same dosage for many years now and I can see no change in them at all. Maybe it's me, but the yellow are still working good for me. Now, the white ones are just junk, pure and simple. They should pull those things and put them on the no-rx list. They should be on the aspirin shelf, right next to the Tylenol.
By the way, did you know that drinking white grapefruit juice a half hour before taking your pain meds, will increase the effects and prolong the delivery time. There's an enzyme in the gfj that blocks the meds from leaving the system very fast. Google grapefruit juice, or gfj, and pain meds.

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I'm a little confused. I took the yellow Watson years ago, They were always yellow & worked better than the others. Now I am back on them. It is my understanding that the Watsons are white & the Qualitest are now yellow & work better than the white Watsons. This is the exact opposite if what it used to be. I will be calling my pharmacy today to try to find out. Is this info correct from your experience?

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Sheila,
Do you want to kill the pain? If yes, then get the Qualitest YELLOW ONLY. The other white ones do not work. I would never accept the white Norcos. They are uselsss and a waste of time and money.

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We patients are the only ones in the dark about what is going on with the pain meds in this country. What upsets me is that we are treated like junkies if we question anything.
If it was insulin that had such a huge difference in the amount of medication from different manufacturers people would listen. But pain management is looked down on. If I had a choice I would not be on any of these pain pills but I can't live in constant pain. Because so many folks are abusing these medications we are all colored with the same brush. It is sad.

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DMOVEUP- Great! Now, if people will just not let the pharmacies push those useless white Norco off on them, and only accept the yellow ones, the big chains will be forced to getting the yellow ones again. The scam they are part of is telling the public that the white are the same as the yellow. And thats pure crap! The white ones are alot cheaper for the stores to buy, and they sell them for the same price as the yellow, which work. The white Norco scam needs to stop!

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I have been on yellow watsons and the white .. Yellow work much better for pain BIG TIME ! I called 5 pharmacy so yesterday to find yellow ones qualities yellow . I took 2 yellow ones all day compared to 4 white ones ! That says it all for me !

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Rob I had to stop taking qualitest yellows because I had same side affects as white watsons from my last refill. I switched to name brand. I think qualitest has followed suite with Watson now. Hope you still have good luck with yours. Ashamed I have to pay $60 now instead of $6 just for true pain relief.

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I would complain to the director of that hospital, or to whoever the doctor reports to. This is medical negligance. They are purposely putting your dad in pain for no reason! I have neighbors that get morphine pills every month from their doctors for alot less then that. Just keep complaining or take him to another docor.

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Qualitest no question are better than Activist. Yellows, not whites. My strong opinion.

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