Colazal Continued

I'm ready to hug & kiss the 1st bottle that reappears at my pharmacy!!!!! Let's hope this nightmare is finally ending ... / Old Hat (31 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)

Thanks to Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness, I received a phone call from a Salix staffer at their NC HQ who said that Colazal should be back in my area's pharmacies by the end of this coming week. She gave me both her office and cell phone #s & told me to call her back to report if the med fails to show up. I informed her that UCers have still been getting negative info RE Colazal from the Salix 800 customer phone # into this past week. Also asked which wholesalers supply my area; she named Cardinal & McKesson as majors in the Northeast U.S. Additionally, I suggested that Salix look into marketing Colazal in Canada to make it more financially viable-- because some Canadian forum members have expressed interest here in obtaining it and Quincy posted that it's not an Rx option there. The Salix staffer seemed interested to hear that and promised to discuss it with her colleagues. / Old Hat (31 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)

 Salix did the right thing to stay in compliance with their mission.

 Around Oct 2011 Salix was having problems with a Colazal subcontractor, and with two generic versions of Balsalazide Disodium on the market they were not too concerned about shifting their focus to Giazo (an improved version of Colazal).  Due to all of the negative input they received (letters, e-mails, phone calls), they realized that a lot of patients do not improve on the generic versions, so they re-focused back on Colazal.

 Colazal is back; and in a few months Giazo will also be available, which is supposed to be an improved version of Colazal requiring less pills.

Well, I attempted a refill at my local pharmacy today. On the 1st desktop entry the pharmacist got "not listed" as a reply. Then I told her that a Salix rep had informed me that Cardinal was 1 of the regional warehousers; the pharmacist searched there & received the reply that they have Colazal. So now I wait to see if it will come to the pharmacy 1 day soon! BTW, all-- the pharmacist was very glad to hear that we patients raised a fuss about our med's disappearance from markets!!!!! / Old Hat (31 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)

The local pharmacy got my bottle of Colazal-- yippee, but I can't bring it home yet because my insurance authorization renewal did not process through yet!!!!!!!!!!!! If it's not one glitch, it's another ... / Old Hat (31 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)

 Old Hat, Glad you got it.  I would laugh, but I know it's not really funny.

 ManhattanMama, I always kept a bottle in reserve (glad I did); now it will take me a couple of months to get there again.

 I have a script for generic that I didn't need to fill, but I think I'm going to go ahead and buy a half bottle of Mylan on my own (don't want to confuse my insurance), and give it a try..  I have a pretty good idea it won't work for me (looks a lot like the Roxane generic), but I'll never know until I try..

Picked up my Colazal this afternoon!

Gastro60, planning on creating my own secret stash just in case this happens again :)

YES, Doors, definitely try Walgreens. My local pharmacy is a Walgreens affiliate & they got a bottle of Colazal for me within 24 hours of requesting it from Cardinal warehouse on 3/15. / Old Hat (31 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)

I haven't called my GI yet Old Hat, I've been "lazy" I guess, too busy doing the gluten free thing!

FYI

I am in process of obtaining them - sounds like my doc sent the RX as requested, now to get it from some kinda warehouse probably...I'll keep my fingers crossed. Tummy ache today, which I will conveniently blame on taking the generic!

Glad you got it, Doors! But still watch out for Chipotle ... LOL. / Old Hat (31 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)