Azmacort Substitute (Page 13) (Top voted first)

Azmacort has been taken off the market because of environmental concerns (they say). There really is NO substitute. All other steroids do not work. My wife could die because of it. No one seems to care. Do you?

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I forgot to mention that the Roflumilast is a pill I think. Not an inhaler.
Margie

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Well I'm not doing very well .I can't breathe I'm on 40 mg steroid and it isn't helping. I just don't know what else to do.. I have written about 8 letter to different people.2- Congressman,President ( what a joke) senator, Governor, FDA, EPA, ABBOTT, American Lung, Jewish hospital, Asthma and Allergy Assoc. I feel so foolish when I end up crying because someone took my medicine away. But I feel so helpless. I hate being out of control.That is a big issue for me. I hope everyone is doing ok.
Blessings,
Margie

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Went to doctor today. They put me on a medication that caused me to have a very bad asthma attack the last time I used it, I told them this and they gave it to me anyway. I did ok on it this time but I wonder if it was the med or just an asthma attack, even though I wasn't having an asthma attack until I used it. You are suppose to take it with out a steroid inhaler and I don't have that.The name of the medication is Bravana or preformist. And she ordered a steroid that I can use in a nebulizer which is a real good thing . But, the med she ordered is one I had the worst time with it gave me pneumonia,a sore throat, and other things. Maybe in the nebulizer I will be able to use it I hope. It was pulmicort.
So I guess you know what I will do next. First thing Monday morning I will be calling the woman at ABBOTT about making the ASMACORT in an nebulizer treatment. Yes!!!!! I so wish they would, I know that they probably could.

Where is everyone?

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Margie:

We are here.

At this point, I do not have any more to add. The nebulizer thingy is a good way to get a load of stuff in your lungs. One time I suggested maybe you could use the salve, triamcinolone acetonide - which is what Azmacort is, in a breathable something or other. That might be a poor man's way of doing it but, hey! if you are suffering - - -

I believe I was told that you could not get enough that way. So, I suggested shoving some of it up in the nose. I suppose it sounded funny.

It isn't funny if you don't know if the next breath is your last.

Jack

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It was nice to hear from someone again. I think we should contact the the talk show host like Montel Williams, Good Morning America, Sarah Palin, Jerry Lewis someone who knows a little about health care issues.

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Margie:

I believe I tried Bill O'Reilly and the Sokolove lawyers at one time. Mr. O does not respond, although we thought it might be a fight he could help win. The lawyers did not want to get into a fight like this.

Jack

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I too have taken azmacort for 22 years and i didn't even feel like i had asthma anymore so healthy, never needed proventil or rescue inhalers i was so sad when i heard they took it off the market, i have tried flovent didnt' work and something else, of course takes a while before you know it doesn't work. Anyway with your faith in Christ, one go to healing service, of course Jesus may not decide to heal you and then obviously move forth. My 3rd medicine I am on is Advair, of course needed a dose of prednisone that the wheened me off to clear me up since i was so bad and even nebulizer treatments didn't help. anyway, seems to be working can go to advair coupons on search and get a 30 day supply free to try. Did you ever search online to see if you can by Azmacort in Canada or online pharmacies, I never have, just a suggestion. I had called over 20 pharmicies in my state of OH northeast too since I figured there is obviously some left at pharmacies non expired of course temporary fix, but hey I did find a few that offered to ship them in, long haul I thought not worth since I know that I will need to change, but worth a try to buy some time. Will be praying for ya.

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I went to the doctor and they put me on Bravana for 3 weeks to see if I could use it and then if I could I was to add budesonide. Well, the Bravana isn't to be used without an inhaled steroid being used . So I didn't start it the FDA has warnings all over the place saying not to take without steroids . So I called her and told her .She said she ask the doctor and he said he didn't think it would hurt anything.Well it wouldn't hurt him at all. I refused to use it like that and said they had the cart before the horse, since I won't be using it at all if I can't use the steroid, so I will try the steroid and see . It is the same medicine as Pulmicort which the doctor knows I had a bad reaction to it. But they want me to try it anyway. After all I'll only get sick or might die no problem. Both of these medications are nebulizer medications that is the only reason I'm giving it a try. Because I know I can't take the other ones.

I did get a reply back from the Obama office and all it said was trying to sell his stupid health care plan. It made me so mad I wrote them back and let them have it and told them that had NOTHING to do with why I wrote them. It does make me feel a little better. # :~)
Blessings

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We did contact all the Canada online pharmacies, and they are unable to get Azmacort as well. Good luck with the Advair. I had a bad reaction to it, and it left me with laryngitis for several weeks after I stopped it. I'm on Dulera now. Still having problems with it, but have to be on something.

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I ask one of the top men at Abbott if they might make the Azmacort into a nebulizer medication and he said no they had no plans to do that. So I guess we are up the creek without a paddle. Seems nobody gives a kj87%f@#e.I guess I will give up on the idea.
blessings,

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I fell upon this website accidentally when doing research for a presentation and I can't help but comment. I am a pharmacist who specializes in asthma at a major academic center. I agree with you all that it is unfortunate that a medication you were stable on was removed from the market over something as silly as CFCs.

However.... there was nothing special about Azmacort other than it worked for you when you tried it. The biggest difference is that whatever drug gets to the stomach rather than the lungs is 23% absorbed - this can lead to more side effects. (As a comparison, Flovent is <1% absorbed) Other inhaled corticosteroids will work for you if you try them. You may have to go through one or two to see what works for you, but they all work similar and have the same side effects. Azmacort was a metered dose inhaler (MDI), so I would recommend trying other MDI's - Flovent, Alvesco, or QVar. Flovent is my personal favorite, and preferred on many insurance plans.

If you have more side effects, you should use it with a spacer. (really, you should be using a spacer anyways)Without a spacer you swallow a lot of the drug and it can increase your side effects. Rinse your mouth or brush your teeth after to decrease thrush. Smoking marijuana is NOT a treatment for asthma. Inhaling any form of smoke into your lungs can trigger an asthma attack. Remember, it takes 3-4 weeks to see the effects from starting an inhaled steroid. None of these drugs cause increased heart rate - thats likely from your albuterol, salmeterol, or even anxiety/panic attacks. Do not try to inhale topical triamcinolone, that will not treat your lungs properly. Triamcinolone nasal spray will try nasal allergy symptoms which can help with asthma, but will not substitute an inhaled steroids.

Advair is also not a direct substitute from Azmacort. It is a step up in therapy according to the national asthma guidelines. This is a good drug for many people, but it has additional safety concerns. It is only indicated for patients uncontrolled on an inhaled corticosteroid.

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To Pharm222 - Thank you for posting your perspective as a pharmacist! It's nice to hear from someone "in the profession". I will tell you, though, that I have tried MANY of the other inhaled steriods to no avail. I have had an infection, long-term laryngitis, respiratory issues, etc., from each of them. My pharmacist believes that my reaction to these other inhalers isn't due to the medications themselves, but rather to the new HFA inhalant. He believes there is something with this inhalant that my body won't tolerate. Since every inhaler is now produced using the HFA inhalant, I'm basically out of luck. Any suggestions?

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I have tried ALL the other inhalers and have just been taken off nebulizer budesinide and bravana because it made it HARDER for me to breathe. I can't take any of the other inhalers. If you have read the post here you will see I also used QVAR with VERY bad side effects, and it has a spacer. I tried all the other inhalers while they were made with the CFC's, so it's not the HFA's causing my problem. I hope you do a paper or a write up on this medication, or at least tell everyone what we are going through.Everyone just keeps saying try one of the other inhalers without paying attention to what I have just said . I'm allergic to them all. I really need AZMZCORT and I NEED IT NOW! Thanks for reading our post.Blessings,Margie

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I wanted to write you and let you know that AZMACORT is not a MDI like you started. One of the reasons that AZMACORT worked for me besides the medication being good was that I was able to take it after every nebulizer treatment.
I take a nebulizer treatment every 4 hours and with the other medications you use them twice a day and after that many nebulizer treatments I'm thinking it washes the medication out of your lungs, so with the AZMACORT it kept me on an even path and my lungs were stable that way. I also noticed that when AMACORT tried to advertize that their medication was one of the best because it had it's own spacer and worked better, the FDA refused to let them advertize it that way. They filed papers on them so they couldn't. So I think the FDA just wanted to get rid of the AZMACORT medication becaues it WORKS!!!
The FDA probably just wants us all to DIE!

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Pharm 222

If you are doing research for a presentation, here is a footnote for you. My wife has died.

Please listen to what these folks have to say. They are not laboratory guinea pigs. They are not esoteric academia discussions. They are not wild-eyed fanatics over a particular drug. They are not against ecology or the environment. They are real human beings with really serious problems and, for the most part, Azmacort worked for them as it did for my wife.

You may assume that, when facing death, a person so afflicted will find out as much as possible to prevent dying or a way to achieve a better quality of life; both, if possible. They ave tried ways not even recommended hoping for a serendipitous discovery. These folks are probably the best experts you will ever find; better than books written by people who have not nor do they even know anyone who has real experience in this.

To me, this whole area experience seems like medical water-boarding. The difference here is, these folks are verifiably innocent before the torture has even begun...

Jack

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I may have jumped in when I shouldn't have about the MDI. I was thinking of drugs like albuterol inhaler or Spiriva or one of theBBMHMZse drugs but . MDI's are metered dose Inhalers and even though I wasn't thiking about AZMACORT being one I guess you could call it an MDI because it let a metered amount each time. Sorry ,This whole thing about not being able to get the medicine we need is sooooooo frustrating, I end up crying every time I thing about it.
You could really do us a kind service if you could publish our frustration and sickness and anything else you could think of that might help us or at least become a voice for us. We all would appreciate it.
Blessings,
Margie

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Thank you so much Jack for posting this reply. You say everything so elegantly and so well that you speak for me when you write stuff. Thanks. The man who was working for the asthma center, must have read what I wrote but he still DIDN'T get it. I have tried ALL other medications and I DID use a spacer and it made no difference. They all make me sooooo sick. Yesterday the doctor took me off the other stuff he had me on.The nebulizer Budesonide and told me NOT to use the Bravana either. To just don't take anything and see what happens . Well, I know what will happen. I 'll bet you I never make it through the next winter. If I do it will be by GOD's grace.
Blessings, Margie

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Boy I wish some of these substitutes worked as well as Azmacort. I have reacted negatively to all HFA inhalers, so my choice is powdered inhaler-allergic to Flovent, Asmanex so Pulmicort flex is the only one left-does it work as well as Azmacort-no. Before the FDA makes these decisions they should use only the asthmatics working there as the guinea pigs-if you don't have it, you don't know-reading is a lot different than breathing.

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I have contacted a druggest about compounding a nebulizer medication from AZMACORT. Since Abbott Labs hasn't ever made one there probably isn't a recipe for making it. But the man who called me from Abbott suggested I do that so maybe there is hope we will see.The druggest said she would call me back as soon as she found out. Pray for us to have found something. Thank you Lord. I 'm finally going to get out of the house and go to see my mother for Mother's Day. I haven't been to see her since Nov. . May 8, mothers day will be my 49th wedding anniversary.
Blessings,
Margie

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HFAs do have different ingredients than the CFCs did, so thats an interesting theory. (but on that note, if Azmacort switched to HFA to stay in production, you would have the same problem) Do you have the same reaction to albuterol? That is HFA as well. I personally feel like the albuterol HFA doesn't work as well for me as the CFC - so I agree there are differences. Try a dry powder inhaler (such as budesonide or Advair diskus). If you have the same problem with those, it is not HFA that is the problem. Are you using a spacer with your inhaler? Without a spacer 9% goes to the lung, 81% stays in the mouth/throat, and the remainder in the stomach. With a spacer, 21% lungs, 17% mouth/throat, 56% stays in the spacer. Hope that helps!

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