Lialda shortage

Anyone else here having an issue filling their Lialda prescriptions? I've been trying since last week and it is still on backorder at my local CVS. Walgreens and Costco both have nothing as well. I leave for vacation tomorrow and I run out Sunday. Not ideal.

Get the generic. I've tried many generics and in my limited experience each one of them is actually more effective than the brand.

This is urgent issue for many of us. I found Zydus' generic made my initial Dx of UC much worse. Total fail and I was on canasa & cortifiam and uceris. Went from mild/mid to mod/severe in 6 months.
Switched to Lialda, started immediate gradual improvement.
I ran out Jan 8, usually mail order for 3 months. fought for weeks to refill, manager @ optumrx and I called every store within 50 miles in NJ. I found 1 bottle. Took it and got the other 2, last week.
The generic has a different coating & doesn't dissolve in the colon correctly.

Post Edited (Dazataz) : 2/11/2020 12:35:13 PM (GMT-7)

Generally there are two common coatings on the delayed-release mesalamines, these are your pills that are red/brown/orange in color:

1.) Slight variations in the MMX, plastic based coating. These you can touch with wet fingers and nothing happens. They vary slightly among the brands using this coatings on what PH the dissolve starts at which impacts the initial release point, and distribution rate. These are your brand named lialda, apriso, delzicol, and asacol's of the med world. The Zydus generic of Asacol HD also has this MMX coating.

2.) Etha-cellulose based coatings, these absorb water and swell up like grapes. Touch these with wet fingers and you get dye on your fingers, and the pills become slimy. The Zydus Lialda generic does this, as does brandnamed Pentasa.

The extra-credit 3rd options is the protomesalamines like sulfasalazine/colzal that have no coating at all and are a chalky white to slightly yellow in color. Rather they are more complex molecules that gut bacterium break into mesalamine and a byproduct.

I have never handled the Mylan or Sun generic tablets, so I cannot say what they are. I have not handled the generic Apriso, or generic Delzicol tablets either, so cannot say either.