Alert to Anyone Taking Replacement Hydrocortisone!

Heather was diagnosed with Secondary Adrenal Insufficiency back in January 2013. She takes bio-identical hydrocortisone since that time. Cortef was the original brand name. Since the beginning that she has been taking hydrocortisone she has been taking Cortef that was rebranded, repackaged, and sold as a generic at generic pricing (Greenstone). That product was a miracle-worker for Heather.

Heather purchases her medication every month. When she went to her pharmacy in February of this year they pulled a switcheroo without notifying us that they switched generics on us. They substituted another generic product manufactured by "Qualitest" which is now owned by "Endo Pharmaceuticals".
Despite the popular mantra that generics are medically the same as the original brand, that assertion is patently false, as is demonstrated by looking at the ingredient list for each product.

Heather is allergic to, or poisoned by something in the Qualitest hydrocortisone. During the last several weeks her headaches, fatigue, and anxiety have become more severe at a time when we thought that she had completely recovered from her concussion from last fall.

When Heather went to the Hansa Center at the end of April, her doctor told her that his testing shows that her hydrocortisone was doing nothing for her, and that her body didn't want it. I have been mulling this over and over in my mind lately. Last week I suggested to her MD that monitors her cortisol levels that perhaps it might be helpful to change to the brand name which is "Cortef". He said, "sure, why not?" and called in a new prescription.

She started taking the Cortef on Monday of this week. I did a Google search last night on the difference between Cortef and the generic version. The first article was by a young woman that has Addison's Disease and uses replacement hydrocortisone. Her pharmacist switched brands on her and she had major problems. it was determined that the "Qualitest" brand was the culprit. She switched back to Cortef and everything returned back to normal. She has posted an article about her experience to warn other Addison/ Adrenal Insufficiency patients.

Many other people posted comments that testified of similar bad experiences with Qualitest hydrocortisol. Some complained about other generic brands from all over the world such as Australia.

I want to warn those who may currently be taking "Qualitest", that they their medication may actually not be helping them, but instead be poisoning them, and adding to their symptom list. Other forum members may have been prescribed replacement hydrocortisone and found out that it didn't help at all. The reason may be that you used a bad product such as "Qualitest". You may want to try again using the original Cortef or Cortef that has been rebranded as a generic that is now called "Greenstone".

Since taking Cortef for the last 4 days Heather reports that the symptoms have partially subsided. The patient experiences after the article report that their symptoms went away anywhere from 3-14 days after changing brands. I expect that Heather will recover completely.

Now I am going to add a few extra comments. I am totally p*ssed off about this mishap and pharmaceuticals in general. We have been burnt by them several times now, and it is ruining Heather's life and bankrupting us. However, I am thankful that a suitable replacement hormone is available. It does cost us a lot more money to use the brand name product. The article was posted 2 years ago. Why is the poisonous product still on the market? Why did the pharmacy switch generics without notice? Why does her MD not know anything about the issue? Why does the conventional medical/ pharmacy community claim that generics are medically the same as the original brand name product? Why was this generic product called "bio-identical"? And last of all, why oh why do I always have to be the one that does endless hours of research and makes the breakthrough?

I have already called Qualitest to lodge a complaint, and will soon be calling the FDA.

Hopefully this blog will help those who unfortunately have used Qualitest.

Thank you to all of you that have granted me the liberty of spewing out my rant! I feel better!!!!

Here is the article:

http://clearlyalive.blogspot.com/2013/11/generic-hydrocortisone.html

Don

Thanks don...i thinkni need this ..been using salt and licorice and its not enough

Don, thank you for this information.

This kind of garbage angers me as well. As traveler said, why do we have to suffer with these health issues from inadequate at the least and harmful at the most products that they stick us with!!!

We pay the Doctors (and yet they act like they are doing us a favor) (I know not all Drs. are bad, this is for the ones that don't give a rip) and our insurance is paid for, shouldn't we be the ones to make these decisions on inferior products? Who died and put them in charge?

I was always led to believe that generics are identical to the real thing! Obviously not so.

Now I am done with my rant...for today anyway!

Heathersdad,

People who work for the insurance co. are accountants, not doctors. But, they stayed at a Holiday Inn and think they're one.

Thanks for the heads up! Feel so bad that Heather had to go through this.

Don't take Cortef, but Medrol and got it through the insurance via the mail. I was prescribed with 2 mg. tablets.

One day, the pills quit coming. I called the insurance and they said the pills are on back order. This went on for a couple weeks till I was getting close to an empty bottle.

Was thinking about rationing the pills or going out in a blaze of glory. Then I remembered there was an old rx for Medrol at our local drug store. I called in the rx, drug store got in touch with my docs assistant, and they found out that they weren't making 2 mg pills any more, just 4 mg pills. They figured out what the proper rx would be with the bigger pills, factored in stress dosing, and I picked them up the next day. Yay!

Still use the local drug store vs. trusting the insurance. They don't understand what's at stake, nor do I think they care...

Of all the meds I take, Medrol/Cortisol is the one I hoard in case of hurricanes, power outages, or who knows what else that can happen.

I have secondary adrenal insufficiency and used to take Cortef but now I live in the Netherlands where Cortef as tablet does not exist (only Solu-Cortef for adrenal crisis). No pharmacy can order it. I mean some independent pharmacies may be able to get it from abroad but that would be expensive if possible at all. So here they give me a generic from Pharmaline. I do notice that it is weaker but no adverse side effects. However, the packaging is a joke just like healthcare here! Literally it is a plain white box with a sticker on it ‘Hydrocortison 10mg’ …no list of ingredients available. LOL!

The pharmacy should never switch to a generic without notice. It is outrageous! Generics and branded meds have the same active ingredient but they are not the same as other ingredients such as fillers may be and usually are different. I would assume that Heather is allergic/sensitive to a non-active ingredient.