Femara or the Canadian generic?

HillBillyNana

My oncologist wants me to take the Femara. She gave me two months of samples. Now I have learned the price is close to $400 a month. But the generic from Canada is $0.88 per pill. I called my pharmacist and he says there is no way to know if the generic from Canada is the real drug. Do any of you know of a reputable Canadian pharmacy where I could get the generic femara? I used www.pharmacychecker.com and found the $0.88 one. Thanks for all your help.

tasha_111

Yes
I am in Canada, the best you can get is to phone Shoppers Drug Mart........I use them on a reg basis and they are always knowledgeable, helpful and honest.

Good luck with this.......... Jxxxxx

HillBillyNana

tasha_111 said:

Yes
I am in Canada, the best you can get is to phone Shoppers Drug Mart........I use them on a reg basis and they are always knowledgeable, helpful and honest.

Good luck with this.......... Jxxxxx

thanks for the pharmacy info
Tasha, thank you for the reply. Can you give me the phone number?

m_azingrace

HillBillyNana said:

thanks for the pharmacy info
Tasha, thank you for the reply. Can you give me the phone number?

Femara
Bumping this up for ppurdin.
Bump.

HillBillyNana

tasha_111 said:

Yes
I am in Canada, the best you can get is to phone Shoppers Drug Mart........I use them on a reg basis and they are always knowledgeable, helpful and honest.

Good luck with this.......... Jxxxxx

Canadian Drugs
I called the shoppers drug mart and they do not ship drugs out of canada. I have checked out some medicare prescription drug plans. I found one that will pay part of the Femara but I will hit the donut hole in November. The good news is I called my pharmacist here and he thinks Femara will go on the generic list in the first quarter of 2011. The cost of the drug is $370 per month. My drug card will be $20 a month, the copay is $43 and I have another drug to pay for also. So if I can't find a canadian source I will be paying about $70 a month for drugs.

tasha_111

HillBillyNana said:

Canadian Drugs
I called the shoppers drug mart and they do not ship drugs out of canada. I have checked out some medicare prescription drug plans. I found one that will pay part of the Femara but I will hit the donut hole in November. The good news is I called my pharmacist here and he thinks Femara will go on the generic list in the first quarter of 2011. The cost of the drug is $370 per month. My drug card will be $20 a month, the copay is $43 and I have another drug to pay for also. So if I can't find a canadian source I will be paying about $70 a month for drugs.

Hey.................
Is it legal to ship drugs out of Canada?...........If it is possible I'd do it for you..........Find out, let me know.......... Hugs Jxxxxx

sgamtd

Femara or generic
HillBillyNana
I also have been told by my oncologist to take Femara. I have not started yet. I want to get to the point where I feel alot better after having surgery (Summer '09) and Radiation that ended middle of november '09.
I have checked on the cost as well at pharmacychecker.com, and wanted to order from the Canadian Pharmacies and get the generic version, however my onco nixed the idea, because the generic version available in Canada is not made in Canada but comes from India. The Indian manufacturer is named Cipro if I remember right. You could google that. I stopped checking up on the subject for the time being as I am still not sure I will even take this drug. I, like you have a 2 months supply, and the Femara website offers help with 30 day free trial, and a $10. monthly co-pay for 30 tablets until you reach $800.00 for a year. It will work with your insurance coverage, so it may even be less monthly cost,however if you are on a medicare part D plan, it does not work. You could just stay outside your medicare prescription plan and purchase 30 tablets at your local pharmacy with a prescription from your doctor and use the $10. Femara plan, but due to high cost of the drug, $360 to $400 for 30 tablets,you would use up the $800 limit in 2 months time.
I also read during my searches that Femara may go generic in the US early part of 2011.
The state of Nevada has a list of SAFE Pharmacies in Canada, and I think 6 or 7 other states have the same thing. I looked under state name, then Health, then Safe Pharmacies popped up.
Good luck to you,
sgamtd

HillBillyNana

sgamtd said:

Femara or generic
HillBillyNana
I also have been told by my oncologist to take Femara. I have not started yet. I want to get to the point where I feel alot better after having surgery (Summer '09) and Radiation that ended middle of november '09.
I have checked on the cost as well at pharmacychecker.com, and wanted to order from the Canadian Pharmacies and get the generic version, however my onco nixed the idea, because the generic version available in Canada is not made in Canada but comes from India. The Indian manufacturer is named Cipro if I remember right. You could google that. I stopped checking up on the subject for the time being as I am still not sure I will even take this drug. I, like you have a 2 months supply, and the Femara website offers help with 30 day free trial, and a $10. monthly co-pay for 30 tablets until you reach $800.00 for a year. It will work with your insurance coverage, so it may even be less monthly cost,however if you are on a medicare part D plan, it does not work. You could just stay outside your medicare prescription plan and purchase 30 tablets at your local pharmacy with a prescription from your doctor and use the $10. Femara plan, but due to high cost of the drug, $360 to $400 for 30 tablets,you would use up the $800 limit in 2 months time.
I also read during my searches that Femara may go generic in the US early part of 2011.
The state of Nevada has a list of SAFE Pharmacies in Canada, and I think 6 or 7 other states have the same thing. I looked under state name, then Health, then Safe Pharmacies popped up.
Good luck to you,
sgamtd

Thanks for good info about femara
Thanks for the information about the femara. I have enrolled in a medicare part D prescription plan. But I am going to check the femara website. Now I have a different dilemma. My bone scan results show that I do have some osteoporosis. So now I am going in to see the doctor tomorrow to see what my options are for treating the osteo. Isn't that a little crazy? To take the femara that causes bone loss, then take another drug to strengthen the bones? My head is spinning. Any advices? I am only 65 and I feel great at the moment. but it has only been 6 weeks since starting the femara and my fingers are very stiff when i first wake up. Only been this way since I started the femara. I had stopped the tamoxifen in June. I was 'drug free' for 6 months. I need help in making this decision.

HillBillyNana

tasha_111 said:

Hey.................
Is it legal to ship drugs out of Canada?...........If it is possible I'd do it for you..........Find out, let me know.......... Hugs Jxxxxx

Legal to ship drugs?
Thanks so much for the offer. I did get an email from the pharmacy you mentioned and they require a prscription from a doctor in Canada. And they don't ship. So it sounds like if I find a legitimate pharmacy they are bound by laws to not ship to U.S. But thanks anyway.

sgamtd

HillBillyNana said:

Thanks for good info about femara
Thanks for the information about the femara. I have enrolled in a medicare part D prescription plan. But I am going to check the femara website. Now I have a different dilemma. My bone scan results show that I do have some osteoporosis. So now I am going in to see the doctor tomorrow to see what my options are for treating the osteo. Isn't that a little crazy? To take the femara that causes bone loss, then take another drug to strengthen the bones? My head is spinning. Any advices? I am only 65 and I feel great at the moment. but it has only been 6 weeks since starting the femara and my fingers are very stiff when i first wake up. Only been this way since I started the femara. I had stopped the tamoxifen in June. I was 'drug free' for 6 months. I need help in making this decision.

FEMARA
Hi HillBillyNana,
Yes,osteoporosis is a sideeffect of Femara, among so many other SE's. This drug is scary to me, however many women take it and have no trouble with it, so I think everyone should give it a fair amount of time to see how they do on it. The trials on Femara are ongoing, but so far I think it is helping to keep the cancer from coming back if you are er+, and most Oncs will put you on Femara if you are postmenopausal and er+.
I also have osteoporosis, have some arthritis as well, finished rads in November, and have not started the FEMARA yet because I wanted some time to heal from bc treatment and get back to some kind of normal, like : sleeping good at nite without meds, having energy during the day to do what I must but also what I want to do, and live my life as I used to before bc diagnosis.
Just these past few nites have I been able to sleep without some kind of medication, and I am getting energy back and feeling good most days, so pretty soon I will have to make a stand on this.
The doctors of course have a medication for anything, there is osteoporosis drugs out there, weekly, monthly, yearly, both oral pills and infusions and I have read many do well with these as well.
Yes, it does sound crazy, take a drug that thins your bone, and take a drug to strenghten them, and each have there own sideeffects. I do read and research the ALS and osteo drugs, as well as looking for other alternate routes for keeping cancer away. Iodine, thyroid and Vitamin D3 all seem to have some effect on BC but also the bones, sometimes I think I have info overload, but I continue reading until the day I decide what to do about Femara.
It's a tough decision, and I wish you well with making yours. If you type Femara into the search engine, I think you will find a lot of posts from women who are doing well on both of these drugs, and some that did not.
Good luck
sgamtd

HillBillyNana

sgamtd said:

FEMARA
Hi HillBillyNana,
Yes,osteoporosis is a sideeffect of Femara, among so many other SE's. This drug is scary to me, however many women take it and have no trouble with it, so I think everyone should give it a fair amount of time to see how they do on it. The trials on Femara are ongoing, but so far I think it is helping to keep the cancer from coming back if you are er+, and most Oncs will put you on Femara if you are postmenopausal and er+.
I also have osteoporosis, have some arthritis as well, finished rads in November, and have not started the FEMARA yet because I wanted some time to heal from bc treatment and get back to some kind of normal, like : sleeping good at nite without meds, having energy during the day to do what I must but also what I want to do, and live my life as I used to before bc diagnosis.
Just these past few nites have I been able to sleep without some kind of medication, and I am getting energy back and feeling good most days, so pretty soon I will have to make a stand on this.
The doctors of course have a medication for anything, there is osteoporosis drugs out there, weekly, monthly, yearly, both oral pills and infusions and I have read many do well with these as well.
Yes, it does sound crazy, take a drug that thins your bone, and take a drug to strenghten them, and each have there own sideeffects. I do read and research the ALS and osteo drugs, as well as looking for other alternate routes for keeping cancer away. Iodine, thyroid and Vitamin D3 all seem to have some effect on BC but also the bones, sometimes I think I have info overload, but I continue reading until the day I decide what to do about Femara.
It's a tough decision, and I wish you well with making yours. If you type Femara into the search engine, I think you will find a lot of posts from women who are doing well on both of these drugs, and some that did not.
Good luck
sgamtd

Decision is made - quitting femara
Well, I went to the oncologist today and she sat down with me. The discussion went something like this. "I am taking femara to prevent recurrance of breast cancer. But the fact is i do not have cancer." She agreed. I said, "but i DO have osteoporosis and we do know that femara CAUSES bone loss." She agreed. I said, "so it doesn't make sense to take a drug (femara) for what I MIGHT get if it makes WORSE something that I DO have." She said, "it is a tough call". I chose to stop the femara. I will take a once a year injection (infusion?) of Reclast. I will take calcium and Vitamin D daily. I will exercise and eat a good diet. I am a non smoker. I am not overweight. I will be fine. I would never want to make this decision for anyone else but this is what I decided - with my husband by my side.

New Flower

HillBillyNana said:

Decision is made - quitting femara
Well, I went to the oncologist today and she sat down with me. The discussion went something like this. "I am taking femara to prevent recurrance of breast cancer. But the fact is i do not have cancer." She agreed. I said, "but i DO have osteoporosis and we do know that femara CAUSES bone loss." She agreed. I said, "so it doesn't make sense to take a drug (femara) for what I MIGHT get if it makes WORSE something that I DO have." She said, "it is a tough call". I chose to stop the femara. I will take a once a year injection (infusion?) of Reclast. I will take calcium and Vitamin D daily. I will exercise and eat a good diet. I am a non smoker. I am not overweight. I will be fine. I would never want to make this decision for anyone else but this is what I decided - with my husband by my side.

Making decision is tough
Congratulations! you have done it!!!. I am having a similar dilemma. I am 48 now and after 10 months on Tamoxifen my oncologist wants me to switch to Femara/Arimidex. I am reluctant and continue taking Tamoxifen.
Good for you made your decision.
New Flower

HillBillyNana

New Flower said:

Making decision is tough
Congratulations! you have done it!!!. I am having a similar dilemma. I am 48 now and after 10 months on Tamoxifen my oncologist wants me to switch to Femara/Arimidex. I am reluctant and continue taking Tamoxifen.
Good for you made your decision.
New Flower

Question for New Flower
You are so young! And taking tamoixfen for only 10 months. What is the reason given for wanting to switch you? I thought femara was only recommended for women who are postmenopausal. What kind of bc? I am almost 65 so the difference in our ages prompted the question.