Asacol thinking of quitting - no longer covered on insurance

If you're in remission, I'd really advise against doing anything differently. If you could switch to a different brand of 5ASA that your insurance covers that would be ideal.

I would not recommend just quitting asacol. Rather replqce it qith something equivalent. Check to see what your insurance covers for other equivalent medications: Lialda and Apriso are once a day, and Colazal and Delzicol are 3 times a day. Worst-case scenario get Sulfasalazine which is a generic and very adorable (just beware if you have a sulfa allergy).

dybeye said...
Have you tried going off Asacol before? I was on Asacol for a year then my GI had me start reducing it. I haven't had any for about 8 months and fill fine. I told him I thought it was a maintenance drug and he told me no. My Humira is my maintenance drug. Right now I am only taking Humira and Welchol.

Thats what Im wondering...If the Imuran is my real hero!?! Not sure if I wanna find out but if I do, nows the time....

Tough decision. By the way, I'm sure your insurance will cover Sulfazine. It may be listed as a different class. It is very cheap. I think every insurance covers it. Don't take that to mean that I'm recommending that's what you do though. I never really completely understood why insurances companies do that because Apriso, Lialda, and Pentasa all cost the insurance companies about the same amount as Asacol. I always thought that if you take the higher tier drugs such as Imuran or the biologics then they darn well better work good enough by themselves that you don't have to take anything else. Unfortunately, that's not always reality. I'm not recommending this either but if you were going to try to go med free (other than the Imuran) then you could try tapering your Asacol right now while you still have some and if you see the slightest sign that you are getting worse then you have time to opt for one of the others mentioned, instead of getting caught with your pants down and then start flaring again.

My insurance stopped covering Asacol, its replacement Delzicol, and Asacol HD. I think the insurer decided this because of underhanded trickery the manufacturer used to avoid generic competition and get themselves an extra 20 years of patent protection.


I switched to Lialda, which is cheaper than Asacol and works just as well for me.

I faced the same decision between imuran and remicade almost a year and a half ago. I was wondering if remicade was doing anything to keep me in remission or was it the imuran I was on. I took a risk and stopped taking remicade, well, it paid off. Imuran kept me in remission with no setbacks after getting off remicade. Now, I also took the next risk which most on here would say is silly, I tried to stop imuran as well. That experiment didn't go as well as the first so I am back on just the imuran at the moment. Good luck on what ever you choose to do.