Mallinckrodt Cheap Hydrocodone Returns!
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I'm sure they're more than a few of you out there that might be returning to look into basically the same problems with Mallinckrodt Pharm"s Hydrocodone/APAP 7.5/325, commonly referred to as Norco. About 4 years ago, Mallinckrodt dumped a bunch of this product on the US market. I have been taking Norco for about 12 years & have always been at about the same dose and never had any problems until I ran into this brand. I've had Actavis, Watson, & Qualtest brands with relatively no noticeable difference. Then four years ago, I filled my usual prescription and came home to find a different shaped tablet with M366 on the side. Almost immediately after my first dose, first came the stomach ache, then the headache, and eventually the feeling of withdrawal. I went to the web and found thousands of people with the exact same story. I had disagreements with both Pharmacists on-line and at local pharmacies because they insist the difference is "in my head". With one, I finally told him I would be willing to bet anything I could take doses blindfolded and within 30 minutes tell him over and over again what brand I had consumed. I understand this is not what pharmacists are taught in school, but my line of work is telecommunications and I can truly say, I have seen things in that field that text books say cannot happen. Anyway, I felt somewhat relieved when finally a recall of all Mallinckrodt's hydrocodone along with several other drugs came from the government. What I was told by one pharmacist was that Mallinckrodt had been caught light-dosing their medicines so many times, finally they suspended all sales in the US because they had been warned "multiple" times that they had quality control issues. I was just relieved I wouldn't be blindsided with their cheap medicines ever again. Asking a pharmacy, "Have you changed brands" does little good as I twice got this trash after being told they had not. Explanation given was that they fill generic drugs and I had been getting generic drugs all along? Of course, that was the reason for not allowing me to return the unused pills and getting my prescription returned to me. And so, today arrives after over 3 years of never seeing any Mallinckrodt products. I obtained my usual script and went to the pharmacy, got home and looked at these pills and couldn't believe this was happening again. But I thought, they had such problems a couple years back, surely this has been corrected. So I took 2 tablets and within ten minutes got the stomach ache and began to feel like I have a fever. Same as I did 4 years ago along with the countless people who posted their stories and the thousands more who suffered the same but never bothered to write about it. I will tell you, I am quite angry this time. I called the pharmacy and told them the story. They said the usual, all brands are the same and that they would not replace what I have, even if I was willing to pay for it again. So I called the Doctor. He was worried that, no matter the reason, legally it's like I received two prescriptions in one day and "you know what the government looks at", finally telling me to try to get by until next time. So now angry doesn't quite describe what I'm feeling as now getting into the evening of day 1 with these cheap pills, the withdrawal is setting in pretty heavy now. I'm so frustrated, I finally called Mallinckrodt's US Headquarters in St.Louis, MO. Eventually they had me speak to one of their "pharmacy staff" and I got the same tune I heard 4 years ago from every pharmacist. So, I asked a couple questions I never had before. Was your company's version of this product not recalled 4 years ago and finally suspended from the marketplace? Wasn't the reason for the suspension that your product was under-dosed? Have you received other complaints about this product from distributors or end users? To all answers, I was told Mallinckrodt had no comment. Folks, this has been going on for too long. I realize many people out there feel that anyone who takes a medication in this or any similar drug class is automatically considered to be a "junkie" and deserves all the pain and inconvenience one gets. I have seen both sides of this and I will say the people who have never had an injury, been shot or fragged fighting for your country, or had to endure a disease that eats away at your body everyday really should just stay out of the conversation. At least don't condemn the person who had every evaluation and treatment done by a medical doctor, usually many medical doctors, and has arrived at a point where you can't eat or sleep without taking something stronger than a OTC NSAID like Ibuprofen or Naproxen. We all aren't out selling it or driving around in a compromised mental condition. In any case, I know if I'm going through this as I did just 3 or 4 years ago, thousands others are suffering through the same thing and the frustrating thing is the bottom line cause of this is just plain money. The sad part is, in a couple of days I won't feel well enough to do anything. And it will get worse until my 30 days is up. Are there any politicians or members of state pharmaceutical boards reading this that wonder why illegal opiate use has more than tripled in the US in just 5 years? What I'd like to do is try to get enough people who are or have dealt with this issue to start talking and start telling this company we won't use their medications any longer. Surely the group of affected individuals includes some lawyers. Has there been enough history and enough people and enough suffering to talk about a legal suit? If anyone out there questions the validity of this argument, call your local walgreens and ask for a price for say 50 tablets of this medication. After you get your answer ask if they have a "brand" name available in the same. When the second price is almost 10 times the price of the first, ask what brand name they carry. It the same as the generic. I did this less than 6 months ago, $30 for generic, $300 for name brand. Same manufacturer. Bio-equivalent? Really? I invite you to check this out for yourself, and since almost all insurances force you to accept whatever is cheapest with any medication, it ought to upset just about everybody. If anyone is as fed up with this issue and the company.

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I complained to the FDA about their adderall last year or the year before. I am super sensitive to meds & I have to take 15 mg of their adderall to get 5 mg of relief. I stopped going to rite aid as they seem to buy the worst of all generics.

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Same thing here.

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Who do I contact about this? I can take 2 Tylenol and get more results than the 7.5s I have taken for years. It's the one's Mfc. by Mallinck. I get no pain relief. I thought it was in my head. I only get 2 a day because of the new laws and was just barely making it on them. Now that the generic has been changed I am in constant pain.

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I want to take a little longer tomorrow to reply to this post but I will reply briefly tonight. FIRST, this is the world we live in. Believe me there are no advocates for those of us who have chronic pain. Normally, those legal firms that specialize in class action lawsuits would be all over this problem but not in today’s political climate. I DO NOT BLAME ANY ONE POLITICAL PARTY. This is a problem that started back as far as 2010 and has gotten worse from there. I need people to understand that it is the PEOPLE in this Country that are hammering their political representatives wherever they may be because their children are stealing pain meds from their relatives, robbing pharmacies and friends, and getting addicted to pain meds and then turning to street heroin laced with cheap fentanyl and OD’ing on it. After they OD from their own choices the family blames the chronic pain patients causing the politicians of every party and stripe to attack the manufacturers of these meds. The manufacturers then try to “reformulate” their pain meds to have no addictive qualities. The problem is that when they “reformulate” these pain meds to take out the properties that make people have the “high” effect they, at the same time, make a so called prescription pain med that is no more effective than a Naproxen or Tylenol. Also, are you aware that you can get a prescription for 7.5 mg of hydrocodone and LEGALLY the pill can contain only 6.0 mg of medicine and that is considered okay? With the effective ingredient being reduced in BOTH size and quality you are now receiving pure junk when your Doctor checks off the generic box which he has to do because no normal insurance will pay for the name brand. This means that if you want the name brand YOU have to pay for it. Finally, for tonight I AM suing my insurance company to make them have to pay for the name brand. This is still working it’s way through the Court system. This is all I can post for tonight. I am paying all of my legal expenses out of my own pocket to try and get this approved because it will set a precedent and will give some relief to all people similarly situated. I will post more about this later.

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Re: Karen (# 2)

Walgreens where my wife and I get ours has been giving us the mallinckrodt m266 I think 7.5 and it’s like taking five. I switched to a locally owned pharmacy and will get mine tomorrow. So we will see. I am done with Walgreens. They have made to many mistakes gave me tens instead of my 7.5s and called four hours later wanting them back. Said the employee put the wrong meds in the machine. Another time shorted me 20 pills. I finally got them the next day.

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Re: Curious80 (# 12)

This is EXACTLY what I have posted on many occasions. The generics are NOT the same as the name brands. As patients we are fed this line of baloney constantly but it is just NOT true.

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Re: Bill (# 11)

I think your post is over one year old but here is the challenge NOW. It depends on which insurance company you have (and in which State) whether they will cover the extra cost of the name brand medication. It doesn't matter what the Doctor writes on the script. If the medication is not on their approved list then you must get a pre-approval FIRST before the prescription is written. If it is not pre-approved first they will not cover the cost even if they pre-approve it a few days later. I KNOW this is true with Humana where I live (each State can have different guidelines).

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Re: FallenAngel 747 (# 7)

This information is correct and what I have been trying to point out for a long time. I have this question. Why doesn't anyone have their pills analyzed by a professional company to PROVE that what they are stating is true? Admittedly, I do not know what the cost of this procedure is because you would have to have at least 2 pills analyzed to get any idea of what they have in them and what percentage they have. There must be somebody out there that has the financial wherewithal to get this done.

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Christina (# 37) --

No. The pill with that imprint is Acyclovir. It's an anti-viral drug most commonly prescribed for herpes.

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What is the oblong white tablet with Ax5307 on it I found it and looked it up and got 2 different answers one was Percocet or Vicodin 7.5mg with 650mg of acetaminophen is that correct

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I guess the Gov., insurance companies, generics, and pharma companies are forcing patients to fight to get brand name because the off brands do not work and if All Patients go to brand name then what will these other companies do? Will the FDA and DEA be called to investigate? Maybe pain patients only way to fight back will be to hurt their wallets... Are there any independent labs where a person could spare 1 or 2 generics to be tested for comparison? It sickens me that pain patients are the casualties in the fake opioid crisis. We deserve a good quality of life. I had to drop Hydrocodone generics for a non-tylenol brand. Maybe that is what others will be subjected to also. There is now a straight Hydrocodone and it's brand name with no Tylenol at all.

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Re: w john (# 35)

Walgreens is on my insurance's preferred list along with CVS and Walmart, but none of those pharmacies carry the oxycodone products that I take and I've been to all 3 with scripts in hand way back in the past well before the fake opiate crisis using AARP MedicareRx Preferred (PDP) part D. The mom and pop pharmacy I use is an alternate pharmacy on the list. I remember showing up to an area Walgreens with my Oxycontin 90 80mg TID and Roxicodone 120 30mg QID and they looked at me like I was insane for even coming there to fill my prescriptions, but who cares that I had an epidural abscess and 3 levels of nerve sheaths are pitted and scarred along with the dural sac that contains the spinal cord. Walgreens is my new doctor and they'll tell me what I need and don't need! My doctor must be a lunatic for prescribing those drugs... This is the reality of absolute insanity in America these days if you're in severe pain these days!

That's how I ended up at a Best Value Pharmacy which are independently owned and operated, but belong to a group of independent pharmacies that band together for purchasing power to lower costs. In fact my pharmacy matched the lowest prices of any of the big chains on my plan with their quoted prices even though they didn't carry my medications, so they said... A lot of people I know who aren't on Medicare part D goto the pharmacy I use. They're on the secondary list of everyone's insurance where I live and match the current chain prices, but sell generics that actually work! For something as cheap as Percocet I would pay cash at a mom and pop pharmacy before I'd put up with the junk generics Walgreens and the chains sell along with being treated like dirt! My quality of life and dignity doesn't have a price tag attached to it...

If you're using a pharmacy that doesn't care about the quality of the medications they sell or treat you like a drug addict then RUN because they don't care about you or your medical condition(s)! The chain pharmacies are the new Nazi pill police who only care about socialized one size fits all, how dare you complain and it doesn't work because you're a drug addict! True insanity! If you're stuck with Walgreens your insurance must be a real socialized medicine plan and I feel sorry for those of you who have a communist like insurance plan that forces you to take junk generic medications whether they work or not?

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Re: Mark (# 28)

Here is an issue with looking for a Pharmacy that will help people. MOST (not all) insurance companies REQUIRE you to go to a Pharmacy that is on their preferred or approved list. I had a long term relationship with Walgreen's and there was never a problem--until January of 2018. Let's just put it like this. I was all of a sudden treated like crap AND they started pedaling this "Actavis" generic which they never had used before. I told them that the Actavis pain medication was totally ineffective and asked them what happened. What did they do? They got pissed at me for ASKING (I always have spoken to these people in a professional manner). All of a sudden after over a 15+ year relationship they treated me like I was a "seeker". I was just dumbfounded. I had never been a problem to them EVER. Please understand Walgreen's (in general) does not want to deal with any long term pain medication users but when your insurance company REQUIRES you to go to a preferred provider the options are severely restricted.

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I had the same problem when I was given Amneal Percocet 750/325. I had a stomach ache and headache for the whole month I was forced to be on them, plus they weren’t as effective as what I had been on before, which was Mallinckrodt. My pharmacy can’t get the 750’s in any strength but the 5/350s. So now I’m forced to take more than I want to. My question here is “is this also true for the Mallinckrodt Percocets or just for their straight Oxycodone?” I never use to question the brand of ANY drug as I thought they were all the same and that there must be something wrong with me! Now I’m having the same problem with my generic Klonopin (clonazepam). Last time a different brand was substituted. I had been on the same ones for years. What irritates me is how the pharmacy just switches to whatever they are forced to buy because of pricing without telling you that they are different. My pharmacist is a friend of ours and even he thinks there’s no difference. I would assume if they personally were taking one brand of drug and then it was switched, they would notice the difference. Because of all these practices with big pharma's, distributors and pharmacies, WE, the consumers have absolutely no say on what brand we prefer. Some people are more sensitive to ingredients in drugs than others are and we are forced to take something that is not good or safe. I think we need advocates for us but I doubt that will ever happen.

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Re: Karen (# 2)

Please note that Watson bought out Actavis in 2014. They continued to manufacture the Watson brand of generics until the Actavis was reformulated and they began shipping Actavis generics. The Actavis generics are worthless and tantamount to a placebo. I spoke to two pharmacists (from different pharmacies) who claimed that they have received numerous complaints about the generics they carry. Any pharmacist that tells you "all they changed was the color (or dye) in the pill" is a flat out liar. The binders have been changed. A law that was enacted in 1984 has been brought back and the manufacturers are using this loophole to manufacture a generic that is prescribed at 7.5 milligrams of hydrocodone at 6 milligrams instead. I am currently appealing a decision of my health insurer to not allow me to take the name brand which both pharmacists agree is consistent and of higher quality. The insurance company said they needed more information before they would approve the name brand. I should know more this week. I am not going to post my many years history and what this insurance company is trying to do to me and how they have gone about it because it would be too long. If people only knew what this insurance company has done they would be furious. (Just a hint: I sent an appeal letter off they received on February 20th. It was sent Certified mail/return receipt requested. Even though I had all of the proof of who signed for the letter, when they signed for it and what time they signed for it they STILL denied receiving it. They said I never mailed it so I mailed it again. These people are scandalous.)

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I’ve been taking Norco for 16 years and it seems to me that ever since the opioid crisis every brand of Norco I’ve had does not work the way it used to. I’ve had the mallinkrodt, aurobindo, and amneal.

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Well, I hope this is true, because compared to what is out there now I'd definitely take mallinckrodt over any of them!! Norco or Percocet!! The Mallinckrodt always seemed to work for me.

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Dear Frustrated,
I agree ...it's all about money. The pharmaceutical reps visit the doctors and introduce these drugs and in turn the Doctor starts prescribing then to his/her patients. We need more Doctors who'll go forth with the feedback from his patients who've all complained So the good Doctor took them off and put his patients back on the original pills without those side effects. Word has to get out from the patient to their Doctor to the Insurances, Pharmacy, Manufacturer ...write an article in JAMA and see what interest it receives.

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I totally agree that this switching of the potency of these drugs have caused this opiate epidemic in our country. I believe that they are harming their own people and it's criminal to do this. Something needs to be done to fight these Giants who are destroying folks who have real pain issues. Stop this now!!!!!!
Elaine

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Re: Star Child (# 27)

They're staying away from quality narcotic analgesics that actually work really real because those will be the most abused by drug abusers. They don't care about suffering patients in real severe pain anymore... We're the expendable American citizens! Crappy generics isn't anything new, but the sheer amount of them is new! There's still some decent generics that will help you to tolerate your severe pain, but you have to find a mom & pop pharmacy that will work with you in finding the best generic analgesic for your particular situation. My experience shows that pharmacies that cater to cancer patients and terminally ill patients are best suited for the severe chronic pain patients. These pharmacies don't advertise that they carry quality generic analgesics and not all mom & pop type pharmacies have them either. Word of mouth is the best way to find them. No chain pharmacy cares about the quality of their medications! It's all about profit and selling junk narcotic analgesics so drug abusers will stay out of their stores. Your suffering means nothing to them, you're just a drug seeker to them...

I remember years ago when my mother in law had pancreatic cancer. She had used the same Walgreens for decades... They treated her like a low life drug seeker when she came in for large amounts of schedule ll opiates. This was an 80yr old woman! Thankfully I had a mom & pop pharmacy where I got my pain medications from for severe chronic pain. She went there and was treated with dignity and got her pride back that Walgreens stomped on without a second thought! They were always concerned about how she was feeling, was the pain medication effective on her pain and if not they'd gladly work with her doctor to find an effective pain medication so she wouldn't needlessly suffer! Like any chain pharmacy would do that!!! The pharmacy I goto would turn in a drug seeker in the blink of an eye, but they have enough intelligence to know when someone also needs their help and expertise! I hope all of you are lucky enough to find an independent pharmacy like I have where I live and get away from these Nazi chain pharmacies! It's bad enough how we have to suffer in our damaged bodies, but for any pharmacy to attack our character and stomp on what little dignity we have left is just pure EVIL!!!

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