Is Generic Kadian Available Now? (Page 3)

Has the generic Kadian been approved and is it now available?identifyvea

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Lynne, I ran into the same thing here in Central Fla. if you go t a pharmacy with a scrip for 60 Kadian, and they only have 50 in stock. You must choose to take the 50 and forfeit the last 10 or go elsewhere. There's no ordering the last 10 and piling them up later on. Considering the hassle we have to go through just to find Kadian, that rule really should be changed. They have no problem ordering remainders of other non-narcotic meds. It would be interesting to know why this wierd rule is necessary.

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Hi, you guys. Regarding partial filling a prescription - the federal gvt. allows pharmacies to partially fill a prescription, as long as they can fill the remainder within 72 hours. I've found that all the big pharmacies (CVS, Rite-Aid, etc.) won't do it -even though the law allows them to, but the smaller, independent pharmacies will. My local Medicine Shoppe has no problem "owing" me pills. I guess the larger stores just have their own policy, and won't budge in this circumstance. Here is the section from the Federal pharmacy rules: Partial Dispensing

A prescription for a schedule II controlled substance may be partially dispensed if the pharmacist is unable to supply the full quantity of a written or emergency oral (telephone) prescription, provided the pharmacist notes the quantity supplied on the front of the written prescription, on a written record of the emergency oral prescription, or in the electronic prescription record. The remaining portion may be dispensed within 72 hours of the first partial dispensing. However, if the remaining portion is not or cannot be filled within the 72 hour period, the pharmacist must notify the prescribing practitioner. No further quantity may be supplied beyond 72 hours without a new prescription.

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Walgreen's as of today, 2-21-12 is carrrying the generic Kadian. I just called to confirm it. 12 mile and Northwestern. Good Luck!

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Re. 8Year Kadian User: I'm sorry, but you are mistaken: you are NOT on the generic...

The pharmacy may indeed be charging you generic prices (as a courtesy) but you are still receiving the original, brand (Actavis-Kadian) one. A simple Google search of the physical appearance of the pill should further confirm this for you.

The generic pills DO NOT HAVE "KADIAN" printed on them--that is a brand name used by Actavis corporation alone. In fact, according to various pill identifiers, the generic Watson's are two colored capsule halves, labeled morphine (and the strength).

It'd be like buying the Safeway (or Costco or Albertson's or Kreugers or whatever ;-) discount version of Lucky Charms cereal...Since ONLY General Mills holds the trademark for that brand, only they can print it on the box. That's why every other manufacturer of frosted wheat cereal bits with marshmallows have knock-off names like "Fortuitous Omens" or "Marshmallow Jewels" or "Albertson's Auspicious-Ohs," ( etc. etc...you get my drift ;-)

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Re: 8year Kadian User and Health Angel et al: My bad, I failed to read on and see that TeeTee answered all!

my apologies!

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Pain in the Butt - Yes, I know I'm still receiving the name brand Kadian - I think it was "Healing Angel" who questioned why her (or his) "generic" Kadian looked the same, and someone posted that the manufacturer sold a quantity of the name brand to suppliers, etc. I have yet to have a script filled with the generic. In fact, my pharmacy actually had the name-brand "Kadian" in stock when I went to fill my prescription, but had to order the "generic" (which my insurance will only cover). It came in the next day - and it was exactly the same pills he had on his shelf, but could not sell me.PUP

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I checked with the company of Kadian, Actavis, and they had earlier offered a patient assistant program or a needy patient assistance (free) and I filled out the form and got a reply stating that since Kadian is now available in generic form these programs are NO longer available, sorry. Watson is one of the new generics.

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Only thing left is morphine ER (long acting) same thing, bottom of the barrel. I had to switch, lost insurance and it is about $100 give or take (costco is cheapest) for my script and went down with a state script help form to about $65. But you get what you pay for. It is not high tech like Kadian, it does NOT work as well, it nearly caused me to have an obstruction (bowel) or blockage, it is just junk! It helps some for my pain but not at all like Kadian which was smooth and no "plugging up" problems. Even my doctors agree, Kadian is the best for morphine as they develop in labs with everything latest technology. Morphine ER has been around forever and never updated or upgraded to a smoother release and stomach problems. Sorry. I think they said that now since it's gone generic, the prices will keep going down as other companies will manufacture also. But at this time I can not dish out $800 a month either even for the generic. But if I get an obstruction from the morphine ER I swear I'll take legal action. Every since I started it I've had nothing but problems.

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I was prescribed Kadian for 6-years at 2 X 100 milligrams per day. 1-year ago I decreased my intake to 2 X 60 milligrams per day. For insurance purposes, my pharmacy automatically switched my prescription to the generic Kadian made by Watson. I have been using the generic for 2-months. I find the generic by Watson to be incredibly unstable. There have been several instances where I feel extremely over-medicated to the point I cannot keep my eyes open and find often find myself nodding-off while using my computer or watching television. There are also times when I feel nauseated; not always, but often. Other side-effects I’ve experienced are the inability to focus and complete one project at onetime; prolonged grocery shopping trips; checking and rechecking locked doors, light switches, stove burners, etc., before leaving the home… meaning, the drug is causing confusion and a mild form of paranoia.

There are some users of this drug that would not have a problem with their generic drug being stronger or feeling over-medicated. Something tells me though that it isn’t that the generic is stronger, but something is wrong with the time-release aspects of the drug. I pay very close attention to the adverse affects of this generic version. At times, it feels as though the medication does not disburse as ‘evenly’ as the Kadian brand. I feel as though the generic brand accumulates a build-up of the drug in my body and then disburses an increased amount approximately every 3-days. Needless to say, this could be very dangerous and even fatal. It is my intention to report this problem to the FDA and whoever else should be alerted. If anyone else has experienced adverse reactions to generic Kadian, please post your concerns.

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Appreciate comments by all in re: to generic Kadian. I surfed the net tonight to see if Kadian's patent had expired and was so excited at first to see that it had; however, after reading all posts I am sorely disappointed to learn the pharmaceutical companies are once again pulling their old tricks. The FDA states that the specs for a generic drug’s active ingredient must fall within the concentration range of no more than 25% and no less than 20% of the active ingredient per tablet/capsule. Sounds like Silversurfer may be suffering from taking poorly manufactured generic Kadian.

As a chronic pain patient requiring MS ER since 2006, I can relate to the above mentioned symptoms of somnolence, intermittent sweating and difficulty w/concentration, as well as nausea occasionally. I can say I’ve used MS ER almost exclusively (after losing ins. 6 mo. into illness.) My side effects have been fairly consistent but I have occasionally come up with a new symptom, or constellation of symptoms. I have had this happen several times. About 3 yrs into my use of MS ER w/ no change in dosing, my neurologist diagnosed me with narcolepsy as I kept falling asleep throughout the day. (Not surprising as I have the genetic marker for it.) I have been found to be deficient in estrogens, testosterone and DHEA.
Treatment w/Estrogen and Testosterone has helped me some w/energy and overall feeling of well-being. As I have learned, a person using opiates (narcotic pain relievers) for greater than 3-6mo, WILL become deficient in Testosterone if male, and if female they will become deficient in female hormones, as well as Testosterone. Symptoms range from mild to incapacitating nausea, fatigue, muscle loss, loss of appetite, lack of or decreased sex drive. These symptoms may be mild to severe in nature. Women may quit their menstrual cycle, experience changes with loss of mons fat-pad, have difficulty w/frequent urination and men may experience loss of facial hair growth, and lose armpit hair and experience fatty deposition in hips/butt. I say all of this just to drive home the point, not all symptoms are due to medication variations. Chronic narcotic use takes its toll on our bodies in so many horrible ways, but fortunately if you communicate well with your doc and you have a good physician, then most symptoms can be treated.

My fiancée is on chronic pain mgt as well and uses MS ER too. One yr ago he almost died from a severe Testosterone Deficiency. During March 2011 he got off the sofa and went outside maybe twice. He awakened w/severe nausea daily and suffered incapacitating fatigue, as well he dealt w/his usual severe pain that we all know is only moderately controlled w/MS ER. After much reading he asked his physician to please check his testosterone b/c of his symptoms. Of course she said no b/c he didn’t look to have muscle wasting nor did he have the other symptoms she thought of to be common w/a testosterone deficiency. At his next appt. 3mo. later in March 2011 he asked again, and she agreed to check it. To her total surprise his testosterone level was at 130ng/dl. Normal range is approx. 300-850 ng/dl for men, and for women 15-70 ng/dl.
It took him several months to really start feeling better using weekly testosterone injections and it’s a constant battle to keep levels w/in normal limits b/c he requires opiate use for pain control. He states that when he has a flare-up of pain and requires more MS ER, the quicker his symptoms of testosterone deficiency return especially nausea, i.e. requiring more testosterone. Most physicians are not aware that chronic opiate use will compromise production of estrogens and testosterone. Our physician is very aware of the problem now and makes sure all of her patients don’t suffer from these hormone deficiencies.

Moral of the story, don’t assume all symptoms that come along are due to medication or a change in medication. However, keep up the good work and let the FDA know all about your experiences w/MS ER and/or generic Kadian. We have definitely found differences in the pain relief of varying brands of MS ER and that ought not be! The FDA really does need to crack down on their generic drug regulations so that we can depend on the generic drugs we take and depend on them to work correctly w/out increasing our risk of suffering or potential death.

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Wow. Thanks, PAC for the post; and all the interesting information you provided. I'm shocked at the minimal requirements from the FDA regarding generic drugs, especially when they seem so critical over other seemingly stupid things. What bureaucratic crap.
What caught my attention the most in your post, though, was the info on loss of energy/sleepiness and hormones. I had no idea long-term pain medication use caused hormone deficiency.
I'm tired and could fall asleep at any given moment. If I pick up a magazine in a waiting room, I can't get through more than a paragraph - and I'm nodding off! I don't even have to be actually reading; even just browsing the web on eBay, etc. puts me out. The scary part is that it happens when I'm driving - and luckily (so far) I've been able to avoid accidents by handing off driving to another member of the family.
My medication prescription is written each month by my primary care physician, who isn't what I would call "generous" with prescriptions. Having a child with a major birth defect gives me a better-than-average knowledge of the medical world, and with two other children - I'm in his office a lot over the last 10 years, but there's times that I know I'm right, and I have to go over his head to prove him wrong. I don't know if I could get him to work with me on this issue....his answer would probably just be to take less medication.
But I'm going to do some research, and go in armed with knowledge - thank you for sharing this info!

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Which Pharmacy's carry the generic Kadian, I can't seem to find any major ones that can get it.

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I have been taking the generic kadian now since it came out in November. At first I didn't really notice much, a small increase in pain, but there are always ups and downs with chronic pain so I just chalked it up to that. I didn't experience any other side effects. However, I have begun noticing that my pain seems to rise pretty predictably in the 1.5 to 2 hours prior to my second 12-hour dose. I NEVER had this problem with the brand kadian. In fact, I could go about 18-20 hours on the brand kadian without redosing if I had to, but I took it every 12 because every 24 wasn't quite sufficient and every 12 was the only other reasonable option. I kept and eye on this for several weeks and it is like clock work. On the brand I never, ever had pain in the morning when I woke up, but now I almost always have discomfort or even outright pain when I wake up in the morning until about 1 hour after I take my dose. Likewise in the evening before my evening dose, my pain control spirals downward and I usually end up with break-through medication until it's been about an hour after I have taken the kadian right before bed I feel okay again.

This is not a huge difference, but now that I have had several months to see, I can tell a small difference. Has anyone else experienced a similar effect?

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Toonces1, I tried generic Kadian for two months early in 2012 and had a similar experience to yours. I wanted so badly for it to work (for financial reasons) but it's just not the same. The difference was subtle... did not release evenly, pain relief was not as effective, I felt "on edge" and irritable similar to PMS. On Kadian, my pain is 1 out of 10 vs. on generic it was about 2 and no opiate, I rated it 7-8. I'm back on Kadian and paying full price without insurance for now. I previously took MS Contin and switching to Kadian was such a blessing. I did not feel it "kick in" or "kick out" and woke up pain free. I used to take a booster dose of MS Contin a few hours before I woke up so I could get out of bed... I dropped that on Kadian. This has been the most "normal" I've felt in the last 10 years and it's unfortunate that big pharma, the insurance industry, and government agencies can't help us out.

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Whats all the fuss. MS-Contin is the same thing and only 10% of the price of Kadian. The only draw back is it only comes in 30,60,100mg

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YES IT IS. I HAVE BEEN TAKING IT. THEY SAY IT'S NOT IN 10'S AND 200'S. I TAKE 100.S

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MS contin generic is morphine, but the formulation is so different it's down right unfair to say they are the " same" Name Brand Kadian got me out of wheelchair and got me a life with HOPE in it. Now the allowed variables in the generic, my quality of.life is now on a slow downward slope. Lossing hope...because CEO's have got to live!!?? How far above the rest of us??

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Thank you all for commenting in this thread! IMHO, it contains the most complete and accurate description of the problems associated with being dependent on the opiate morphine sulfate in its' various forms that I've come across yet, and I just want to add my own experiences to confirm what some of you wrote, and summarize what I've found to date. Maybe it can help some of you, too; I hope so.

Background: my sciatic nerve root was shredded by a "blown" disk in the mid 90s, and my pain has been severe and chronic since. I began treatment with the usaul OTCs many doctors start with, but within months was on T&C; then after a few years was at the maximum dose and could not continue. My doctors tried various meds during that time; I am one of the patients who almost died using the defective Fentanyl patches, and suffered withdrawal serious enough to end up in the ER on generic extended release morphine sulfate tablets, until we tried Kadian capsules. So far, it has been the only medication that controls my pain to a manageable level, without ANY serious side effects, just as some of you have described.

Until now.

Before I explain, I think we need to be very conscious of our terms here, because some people have used the words "tablet" and "capsule" somewhat loosely, but they are NOT the same, they are NOT equivalent in action OR effect, and they do not LAST the same amount of time, especially in generic form, nor perform as well as the brand name Kadian capsules. I hope we can all agree on - MS Contin is NOT the same as Kadian capsules, nor are the various MS tablets. Let me just stress that for those who would try to say "they are all the same," as some have here - what I've discovered from having used the various forms over the years is that TABLETS are NOT the equivalent of Kadian in any way; they do NOT act the same in the body - they are gone much too quickly for me, for example, as if I get a full 24 hour dose in less than 12 hours! I used to go into withdrawal at least once a day on them - sweating, shaking, mounting confusion. The absorption mechanisms are so different and seem to be entirely dependent on how a body absorbs the coatings, in terms of duration of effect; in fact, having been on so many I think I can safely say that NONE can compete with Kadian capsules for long-term release in the body. Those tiny "beads" each have a coating that seems to actually work more evenly in more people than any other type or brand that I've been prescribed and I think that no single coated tablet can come close. That's been my experience and echoes that of what I've read from others across the websites, at least. Mine included an elongated pill which was easier for me to cut into quarters, which was a bit better - but it is NOT a long-term solution, just a stopgap measure to keep me out of the ER again until I could get another medication! So the generics and tablets were finally all out, at least for me.

Once settled on Kadian caps, as high as 100mg X2 daily, things have always gone smoothly, with no real side effects - other than those listed for long-term opiate users, which I had never heard either, thank you SO much for listing them, PAC! My GP came close to putting that mystery together, although my pain specialist never brought it up and probably doesn't even know; and I think it's time for me to find someone who does. I've lost all my armpit hair, and my testosterone was so low my GP gave me an Rx for monthly shots. I am now in my 60s, so some testerone loss is natural, but my levels were very low, and that fits the long-term opiate use profile.

However, I am now forced to use the generic form of Kadian since the supplies being sold as "generic" but stamped Kadian seem to be gone. It's now the bi-color Watson "equivalent", and I could see and feel the difference right away! The action IS inconsistent in my experience - for some reason, although the contents are supposed to be the identical "little white beads" as Kadian. Since I had a couple of leftover 80 and 100 Kadian capsules, I decided to compare them with the new generic - right away I could see that the (3) 80mg Watsons DO NOT contain the same number of beads as the Kadian 80s - just hold them up to the light and compare side by side. I opened them and emptied them into a pill divider (I keep it for nausea), side by side - and it's clear that the Watsons contain about 10% LESS medication than the Kadians; this is consistent with every Watson I held up to the light.

In fact, I took digital pics of each, and with free software ("ImageJ" from the NIH website), used the "Cell Counter" plugin to actually count the beads in each capsule - you can do this yourself to prove what I found! Here are my results with 100mg and 80mg caps:
100mg Kadian - 1) 251 beads 2) 254 beads
80mg Kadian - 1) 201 beads 2) 204 beads
80mg Watson - 1) 181 beads 2) 184 beads 3) 182 beads
Here is the math I did to show the difference:
@ 100mg/250=0.4mg/ea
250 x 0.4 = 100mg
@ 80mg/200=0.4mg/ea
200 x 0.4 = 80mg
@ 80mg/180 = 0.444444444444444444mg/ea (not consistent!)
180 x 0.4 = 72mg, NOT 80mg... 10% LESS

Not only are they dropping the bead count by approx 10%, but the individual beads in the generics, under 10X magnification, are less uniform in size and shape, with the majority being smaller than the actual Kadian beads. Draw your own conclusions about what it means to us as patients, but my body felt the difference within a day of the changeover. I KNEW something was different, despite all the assurances that they are identical - they are NOT, and you can prove it also.

As for what kind of "windfall bonanza" this can give them, I'll only point out at the retail rate of $20/capsule in my area, they are making an extra bundle on every single capsule - all perfectly legal under FDA rules for generics? My understanding is that generics must reach the same strength in the bloodstream in a given time, but how can that happen when we get 10% LESS per capsule?

Here is the URL of the FDA site about generics - please read the rules yourself and draw your own conclusions.
fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/UnderstandingGenericDrugs/default.htm

Why am I posting this? There's a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about this issue, and it's hurt a lot of patients like me, as this forum shows; I am trying to explain why our experiences with these potent opiates differ so widely, aside from our individual biological differences. I hope others will compare the other strength capsules that I don't have access to, and together maybe we can prove there IS a measurable difference between the brand and the generic, and get it corrected. My contention is simply that 10% less medication and inconsistent bead sizes DOES make a difference in bioavailability AND action - if others can verify that, maybe we will suffer a bit less and still save some money by having more consistent generics in the future.

I also hope it helps some of you who bravely posted here, too - thank you all for spurring me to action!
JL

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I've been using Kadian for about 6 years now. Before that I took oxycontin and ms contin. There is a BIG difference between kadian and the other two. I had terrible withdrawal symptoms on the others starting an hour or more before my next scheduled dose. With Kadian, I never feel anything unusual. Something about the way the capsule releases the medication works wonders for me. But my pharmacist said generic Kadian would have the same co-pay for me...$100/month. So there's no advantage to using the generic. At least the patient assistance card reduces my co-pay for the name brand to $50 a month. Still a lot more than I want to spend for just one of a dozen medications I have to take.

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The difference between Kadian and Generic MS Contin is night and day. when I was taking Kadian I never knew I was on a pain killer except that it reduced my pain. Now I am on Social Security disability and have to wait 24 months for Medicade I take the Generic MS Contin. It is not even close. It is suppose to be time released but it is just a roller coaster. It works quickly when taken but also wears off long before the next dose is due. Plus I was on Kadian 80 mg and Generic MS Contin does not make 80mg I am now on 100 mg and it is not ever half as good. I do believe people who abuse might prefer the Generic MS Contin but being a person in pain who is trying to live a normal of a life as possible it is no contest. I do know Kadian has a generic now but the cost is still about $800 a month. They just are not the same drug. Generic MS Contin is CRAP!

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