Zydus Generic

There's been a mix of reports, some (like me) had an uneventful switch, whereas others started flaring. No scientific studies comparing the effectiveness between them. Everything is anecdotal evidence. Most doctors and pharmacists will say there's little or no difference between them.

Technically, the coating is very different between Shire generic and Zydus generic (so much so that the courts allowed Zydus to beat Shire in court in a lawsuit of releasing said generic). The only thing in common is the 1,200mg dose per pill, and the once a day application. The inactive ingredients and coating are completely different. Shire's pills have a varaiation of the MMX, plastic-based coating (as does asacol, delzicol, apriso, etc.). The Zydus generic shares more in common with Pentasa than Lialda in coating. As both Zydus and Pentasa use an ethacellulose, water-soluble coating. If you touch Zydus pills with wet fingers, the red/brown coating pigment comes off a little on your fingers (Shire's do not). If you poop out a whole Zydus pill it looks like a grape in size and shape, the coating inflates when in contact with water. Pooped out, whole Shire pills looks no different than those pills within your original bottle.

I had to switch for insurance reason too. And CVS filled zydus Mesalamine DR. I am taking it for more than 3-4 months and it is working fine.

I fought so hard with insurance to keep me on Lialda but did not work. So I had to switch. and it is working fine.

Air&Sea said...
...Then switched to the Shire Generic and while it did not pull me out of the flare it had the same outside texture as the Zydus pill.

Hm, that seems odd that Shire generic would have the Zydus coating/texture. I figured the Shire Generic would be the same coating as brand Lialda. Did the Shire Generic have the 711 label on it?

My local pharmacy will be getting the Shire Generic tomorrow so if it is similar to the Zydus then I'll just have to try it for a few days and see what happens.

Well the pharmacy called today. They had specifically ordered and requested the Shire generic from their supplier, but they received the Northstar (zydus) generic.

Don't know why this is so difficult. They will call their corporate office to see if it is possible to get the Shire generic in (it shows in their systems as available).

Only have 3 weeks left of brand name Lialda and am petrified of changing something when everything is working fine.

What happens if I try the Zydus generic and it doesn't work and I want to go to the brand? I assume I'd have to pay 100% out of pocket because insurance won't cover the same type of drug filled in short succession?

If you have issues with the generic then have your doctor appeal to your insurance for the brandnamed version.

Healthy policies and fine print wildly from policy-to-policy, so hard to say for absolute sure. Usually you'd have to pay whatever the "non-preferred/formulary and brandname tier" is for your insurance. Often there is a tier first for generic (least expensive Out Of Pocket), second for brand-named preferred (more expensive OOP), and lastly for brand-named non-preferred (most expensive OOP). Could be a flat dollar amount for each tier (rare these days), or often a percentage of the list price of the medication.

And again, you don't know for certain that the switch will make any difference at all. For me it did not.

If you're worried you might run out of lialda in the interim, ask your doctor's office if they have any samples on-hand. Drug-reps visit and leave a number of bottles of brandnamed lialda and other meds. I got a 30-day supply bottle of lialda that way once, and I've heard of others doing the same.