Generic Colazal

There are mixed results from people here on Balsalazide. I have been on the generic for about 2-3 years and I never had an issue with it.

Balsalazide was way too weak for me. I feel I was deteriorating at a very slow rate, albeit, through the time I was on it. Brand name Colazal was better, and now I'm on Lialda and it seems even better.

I'm on Balsalazide for close to a year (maybe longer) and have no side effects. Is it responsible for my remission? Dunno. I'm positive that diet mod. started in Jan 2010 is the main reason but I continued with Balsal. because it wasn't hurting anything. Asacol at max dose never helped at all.

If you have problems with Balsalazide you should be able to move to Colazal (insurance-wise) since some people report they do better with it.

Hello all! New to this forum, but definitely NOT new to UC. See my sig.

I just switched from Asacol to Balsalazide, mainly for cost. But, I also was starting to think my hair loss might be attributed to the Asacol. Or, I'm just getting older! Also, Balsalazide seems to be a better fit for left-side UC then Asacol.

So far (after just a couple days), no noticeable differences. I did have a headache yesterday, but that could be because my coffee machine broke. Bad timing!

Anyhow, this forum looks very educational, with a great group of people. I will share my experiences and look forward to learning more.

Eph

Eph,

what dosage are you taking of colazal? I was on 1.6 gr asacol and have settled on 4.5 gr colazal.(3 pills twice a day) I tried 3gr colazal and after a week things got worse.

Take my coffee away and I get monster headaches.

Balasalzide disodium is compound that resists breakdown at low PH levels like the stomach and small intestine. Silimar in this way to the coating on asacol. Once in the colon it is biologically broken down into mesalimine(5ASA) and another compound. Like Sulfaslazine. You can actually put the capsule contents on apple sauce and eat it.

You can take it on an empty stomach but it gave me heartburn and I found the pills went down better with food. Some of the literature speculates that it works better with food but who knows.

The rough equivalent is 6.75 g colazal is 2.4 gr asacol. 2.25 is a pretty low dose. In the UK where colazal is approved for maintenance, 3gr is the starting maintenance dosage. It is called colazide there. Here is some drug information from Europe:

www.virtualcancercentre.com/drugs.asp?drugid=3141#Dose-advice-of-Colazide

www.epgonline.org/viewdrug.cfm/drugId/DR003014/language/LG0001/drugName/COLAZIDE

www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/21236/SPC/colazide%20750mg%20capsules/

I found a study(can't find the link) where Colazal and I probiotic was more effective than drug or probiotic alone for preventing relapse of diverticulous. I thought it was interesting because it shows that they can work together.

Post Edited (AZYooper) : 11/13/2010 10:32:15 AM (GMT-7)

I'm still doing well on generic Colazal. I wonder if the reason that some people have problems with the generic vs. the brand-name Colazal is due to the fact that the generic is manufactured by three different companies?!?!

/host1.medcohealth.com/medco/consumer/ehealth/druginfo/dlinfo.jsp?BV_Sessionid=@@@@1401564669.1291813330-mm693221521614@@@@&BV_Engineid=ccccademeldfimicfklcgffdghfdfkh.0&accessLink=ORDERSTATUS;&navigation=6&Ndc=60505257507&DrugName=Balsalazide%28colazal%29%20Caps#H1

Not sure if that link will work, but if it doesn't, it describes the three different versions of the generic: 1 from Roxane, 1 from Mylan, and 1 from Apotex.

Could there be minor variants between these that is causing the different responses to it?

Eph

I am still on generic colazal and happy with it still. I am on the Rozanne version. I have tried again to reduce to 3g a day. No go. Start getting looser stools and need to go an extra time. I have been on 4.5 gr most of the time which seems to work pretty well.

I did find out that 750 mg Balasalzide disodium is equal to 262 gr of mesalamine delivered to the colon. It contains no sulfamides or sulfasalazine.

Balasalzide disodium breaks down in the colon into 5ASA(mesalamine) and 4-aminobenzoyl-β-alanine(which I haven't found out much about other than it is supposed to be mostly inert and not absorbed much)