How Can I Find Out How Much Of The Active Ingredient Is In Generic Norco

Only the Watson Norcos work for me and now my insurance will not cover Walgreens which is the only pharmacy that carries them. I've tried Amneal Norco, Qualitest Norco, and Mallinckrodt Norco. NONE of them work unless I take 1.5 tablets. I have learned that it is PERFECTLY LEGAL for generic drugs to contain ONLY 80% of the active ingredient, which is clearly why I need 1.5 tablets! (How is this legal?! It is shameful, is what it is!!!!!) Unfortunately, if I take 1.5 per dose, I will run out of them before my next doctor appointment. Please help! Is there ANY generic Norco besides Watson that contains 100% of the active ingredient included in the brand-name Norco? Otherwise I have to pay $95/month IN ADDITION to my very expensive insurance. I will have to quit paying for insurance in order to afford my drugs!

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Hello, RhoRho! How are you? I'm sorry about the problem that you're having.

The 80% is actually the lowest they can go, so it isn't that they all only contain 80%. The allowable difference is actually up to plus or minus 20%, so some may be stronger and some weaker, but they can hit any number in between and still be considered therapeutically equivalent, because in most cases, the differences equal just fractions of a milligram.

And no, other than spending money to have a sample of each lab tested somewhere, there is non way to know the precise amounts in each.

Have you consulted your doctor? They may be able to prescribe more, or perhaps put you on an alternative medication.

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Hi Verwon! Thanks for your response to this post. I just saw it--and after all these months, I am still dealing with this same problem. And it is getting much, much worse. It is impossible to get either Watson or Qualitest generic Norco from any of the pharmacies that my insurance covers--and each month, it seems that all of the pharmacies change to yet another generic brand.

One month, it is "Sun" or "Amneal" Norco from India; the next month, it is "Tris Pharma" and the next month "Mallinckrodt". And with each change in manufacturer, my pain levels spike to where I can no longer function and I just want to die.

I've been trying to take 1.25 Norco pills per dose to manage my pain (@ 80% strength per pill, this should give me 100% of the intended dose). But these cheap pills are so hard, they break into a hundred pieces when you try to cut them--and it's nearly impossible to manage my dose now; the bottle is just full of pill shards and powder-I have no idea how much I'm actually taking anymore. This really sucks--either I get too little and I'm left in agony; or too much, and I'm wasted and just want to sleep all day. This is so depressing. I wonder if I'd have better luck getting high-quality Norco on the black market?

Yes, I have talked to my doctor about this (which is why I have enough pills to take ~1.25 pill per dose now). He is definitely well-aware of the potential 40% variation in the amount of active ingredients between one generic and another generic. Before I realized that this was legal, I paid to have two generic brands analyzed and they both had barely 80% of the active ingredient contained in the name brand. It makes sense, since the active ingredient is much more expensive than the filler ingredients--and of course, they will use the lowest legal amount to save as much money as possible.

This is a huge problem for doctors (and patients!), especially those on blood thinners, where a 20% difference in dosage from one month to the next could potentially be fatal. And this is all perfectly legal, thanks to our brilliant FDA.

And this is because... Why? So pharmaceutical companies can rip us off by 20%? So pharmacies can pay the absolute lowest price for every generic, regardless of how poor the quality is?

Isn't the state of the U.S. healthcare system just pathetically sad?

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