What Is The Best Generic Version Of Wellbutrin Xl - Watson Or Anchen? (Page 54)
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My doctor will not prescribe generic Wellbutrin XL but my insurance will no longer pay for brand name drugs. I will have to pay about $7000 per yer for what I am taking now (3 of the 150mg Wellbutrin XL brand name per day). I am reading that the problem with the generics is the time release mechanism and not the drug itself and that some are better than others. Anybody have experience with the generics made by Watson and /or Anchen?

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whatever happened with you? I was just kicked off Valeant assistant program in November. I cannot afford the brand name. per month its 334.00 for the 150xl and 442 for the 300xl. unbelievable......dont know what generic to try any suggestions...

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Yes. I have been taking the watson bupropion 300 xl for several years along with pristique. I signed up for the fda publications to be sent to me on the internet when recalls to drugs or food occur. Back in october 2013 I was reading an alert and noticed the watson bupropion recall. I immediately called my pharmacist at sam's club pharmacy and told him. Of course he didn't know anything about it and was argumentative until I went down there with the fda recall alert! I had just gotten a prescription of it refilled and demanded a replacement from a different manufacturer. He tried to give me activas and I told him no because they have been bought by watson! I demanded that it be replaced with the mylan buproprion. Well I started taking it and within 15 days I knew I had been being ripped off by the manufacturer watson because it was the difference between night and day! My mind became clear, no more stomach upset, heart palpitations, gas, headaches and I was much more focussed and clear! I would describe the watson bupropion as a dirty drug. Very poor quality and absolutely useless for what it was prescribed for! I didn't have anything to compare it to until I took the mylan bupropion! The next month when I went to refill the prescription the pharmacist said my insurance would only pay for activas! I couldn't afford to pay the difference to get the mylan. I went ahead and took the activas bupropion and have been taking it now for 5 days. It is nastier than the watson! Heart palpitations, rank taste in the back of my mouth on the tongue, a tight feeling in my chest, uncontrolled agitation and anger! I am so pissed off about this! I think since activas and watson are the same company now they are just selling the same crap that was taken off the market! I wish there was a legal dispute for this situation and I feel that anyone who has been taking thecwatson or activas bupropion should get reimbursed for all the money spent on their s***ty drug! The difference was so great between the mylan and the watson and activas with mylan being the better buproprion there is no comparison! I don't know what to do now. I don't want to keep throwing my money away on the activas buproprion! Any thoughts on this subject?

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Go figure - I was doing okay with Watson - Abrika took them over, and I'm not doing well at all. It is beyond me that manufacturers et al think these "casual" switches don't affect patients to this extent. It's extremely frustrating, as it affects my interactions with everything & everyone... home, work, etc. Ridiculous...

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The FDA pulled the Watson 300mg product because it was determined that it was not bioequivalent to the brand name product.

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I have not had a good experience with the generic . I am in the same boat my insurance will not pay. My doctor has me on Forfivo xl . I am not crazy about it. We need a coupon or some support from welbutrin

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The max under the Valient offer is $50 whether or not you have insurance. I just recieved mine $50 with NO insurance.

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In reply to the last post.. the savings card that is on the Wellbutrin XL website has 2 options.. one is to get it from your local pharmacy and you can get $50 off your deductible and the second one.. the guarantee program is where they send you your script through the mail if you are insured you will pay A. $0 if your insurance reimburses you $100 or more per month on your Rx or B. maximum of $50 if your insurance company reimburses you less than $100 a month. There is also an option for no insurance plan where it says you will pay maximum of $50 a month (this is will the mail order). I am really excited that they are doing this! I have been on the SR because I had the assistance program for the past year and a half (when they used to have the program and theyd send like 6 months at a time so I still have it). I wish I had coverage so I could get my Rx for less than $50.. I already pay over $60-80 for other Rxs a month. But either way I think I will be picking up a new RX of the wellbutrin XL so I can use the Guarantee Program!

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The Valeant offer - please correct me if I misunderstand - but from what I can find, Valeant will only reimburse UP TO $50 per month for Wellbutrin XL. This is great if your insurance is willing to pay most of the cost, or your copay for WXL is under $100 per month.
Even with insurance, my cost for brand name WXL is almost $500 per month. For me, ordering from Canada is much more cost-effective. My insurance: $1400 for a 3 month supply. Canada: $190 for a 3 month supply. Pretty clear-cut to me.

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Look for the Valeant offer on the web. It is the brand directly from Valeant shipped from the US. Maximum cost is $50 for a 30 day supply. Pay by credit card. Takes a day once your Dr. faxes the prescription form.

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Mona, this is the first time I've ordered from Big Mountain Pharmacy (or from any Canadian drug company), but several people on this blog have spoken highly of them, and so I pursued their lead. I too am paying cash (credit card), since my insurance in the states won't cover it. As has been said, I strongly recommend calling and being very specific about what you want. They will set up an account for you and wait to receive your faxed or scanned prescription. Then they'll call and obtain your credit card information; I don't know how it works if you're planning on sending a check. Once they get the prescription, they'll call you back and verify the drug you've requested. Again, specify Wellbutrin (brand, not generic), manufactured by Valeant and shipped from Canada. As far as setting up an auto pay/ship, I THINK you should be able to do that, but when you first call them, ask them about it; I found them to be very accommodating. Good luck.

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Have you used this and are there any catches? I am cash paying. Being that it is shipped and can take 5-10 days can you set up an auto ship/pay?

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Thank you, Hope....I received a printed prescription from my physician for Wellbutrin XL 300mg, with the clear stipulation that there could be no substitution for a generic brand. Had a very clear, detailed conversation with the folks at Big Mountain Drug, indicating that I wanted the Wellbutrin manufactured by Valeant and shipped from Canada. They were very understanding (sounding as though they'd heard this request frequently :-). I faxed the prescription to them, and then they called me, verifying the order, and indicating that a 90 supply would be $179 plus $10 shipping, and that it would arrive within two weeks. Given that the last prescription I ordered from the States for the same product cost me $465, I am delighted with this service. Thank you so much for being so clear in your instructions.

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I just ordered the brand through this offer from Valient . The maximum cast is $50 for a 30 day supply of XL delivered through the mail.

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Kathleen - Check out posts number approx 60-80 (pages 16-17 approx) for discussions on brand name from Canada - I have also used Big Mountain Drugs, and specifically request brand name from Canada that is manufactured by Valeant - have had not problems with it. If you do not specify this, you will receive it from Turkey. I don't know if you can transfer your current prescription. You can scan and email, or fax them a prescription - I typically call them to make sure I get the specific brand name that I need.

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Rhonda
I've read your posts, and want to know if you are still using Blue Mountain pharmacy in Canada for your Wellbutrin xl prescription? Like everyone else, I've tried the generic (my insurance won't pay for Wellbutrin) and when, after three months of using it I knew without a doubt that the generic wouldn't work. I did have my doctor communicate with my pharmacy, and he indicated that I had to have the brand (as opposed to the generic) and so they sold it to me for over $450. I can't afford to do that again. How do you get your prescription transferred to Blue Mountain? I really appreciate your help and advice on this forum.

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For those of you using Medco / Express Scripts: They can / will fill a brand specific generic provided that your doctor specifies it on the fax form / prescription form.

I, too, was filling Wellbutrin XL through Target up until last month when they discontinued carrying the Watson Generic version of the 300 mg XL. The version they now carry resulted in extreme headaches, where I never had such a reaction to the Watson variant which I have been taking for years. I visited probably 20 local pharamcies, everything from the big names (CVS, Walmart, RiteAid, Walgreens) to the mom and pop local pharamacies trying to find someone that had the Watson version -- everyone told me it was backordered.

I finally landed on a Shopper's pharamacisit who told me that Watson had discontinued in the 300mg strength. She was nice enough to work with me and my doctor to do "3 day trials" on a couple different brand generics to see if we could find one that didn't cause the aweful headaches. For me, the GlaxoSmithKline variant seemed to work best.

Back to Medco / ExpressScripts. I called the member services number on the back of my card and explained the situation to the CSR. While by default they do carry "Par Pharm" and "Valeant" generics, they will order a specific brand of generic for you provided that your doctor explicitly writes the brand name(s) on the actual perscription / write in form. Note that it does take a few more days the first time you order in this manner, as they do have to special order it. However, it does give you the option of leveraging the cost savings of Mail order perscription benefits.

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I was taking Wellbutrin XL 300 for a long time with no problems only benefits. Then my ins. co. decided to only pay for the generic(Bupropion SR). I took that for about a month and suffered depression and much anger. My doctor suggested taking the generic twice a day which again didn't help. The FDA has admitted the generic is not a substitute for the Wellbutrin XL 300. So, after many calls to my ins. co. I found that if my doctor wrote a prescription specifying to use only the brand drug and a letter explaining that the generic was tried and didn't work the ins. co would pay for part of the prescription. The cost for me went from $390 to $420 to $150 to $200 to $50. This was a long road of many phone calls to the ins. co. and the doctor. In the end it was all worth it. I ended up receiving a reimbursement ck. from my ins. for $440 for over charges. I am extremely happy to be back on Wellbutrin XL and be myself again, even though it took almost 12 weeks for the Wellbutrin XL to take complete effect. So what I'm saying is, don't stop a drug that already works for you, and pursue every avenue with your ins. co. to get what is necessary for your health and well being. That is why we have ins. Good luck to you all.

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I just spoke with a rep from Valent and the Guarantee Program may start to include the Wellbutrin SR in the next few weeks. Right now only includes the XL, but he said to keep checking back as there's been talk of ramping up to include the SR!

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Walgreens would never admit knowing about anything having to do with something they are selling. I have been hearing a lot about Actavis on this site, and I might see if I can find a pharmacy that has it just to try. Before I changed from the brand (which was indeed a brand and was made by SmithKline so I'm not sure why someone posted that it was originally a generic?), I did some research on the various generic versions of Wellbutrin XL. The problem seems to be not the amount or quality of whatever the active ingredient in Wellbrutrin is, but rather the quality of the time release formula they use with it. That might be why the 300 doesn't seem as good as 2 150's because with a different brand the time release method is probably different and is either too fast or too slow. Time release is really important with something like this, so I would try to either go back to the 150's or try another brand of the 300.

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Have you used this deal? I called them and the representative I spoke with said that the deal was up to $50 off the cost of the medication without insurance, not a 30-day supply for $50. That was using the option to pick up at the pharmacy. Has anyone used the other option of receiving the medication by mail? Is that cheaper?

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