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For those of you on Coumadin

antcat
antcat CSN Member Posts: 270
in Ovarian Cancer #1
I've been seeing alot of posts lately about coumadin. When I saw my oncologist in White Plains, I brought her a article I clipped out of the paper about coumadin (name brand) versus warfarin (generic). It seems from the article that it's better to take the name brand versus the generic as pharmacies usually change companies they deal with medications. So one company might have one slight difference in the warfarin thand the previous company. I also asked my pharmacist in CVS about this and was told it was true. The name brand is more expensive but I don't want to have the inactive ingredients being different.
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  • whiterose
    whiterose CSN Member Posts: 89
    #2
    Coumadin
    The efficacy of Coumadin (or the generics) is measured by your INR tests, the blood test administered on a regular basis. If there are any differences in medications, the doctors can generally adjust the meds (and they often do). So, all in all, I don't think this is a big deal. My husband was on a Coumadin-type drug for a-fib. and was able to maintain a constant level with diet so he ended up only going monthly for his blood test.....
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  • antcat
    antcat CSN Member Posts: 270
    #3
    whiterose said:

    Coumadin
    The efficacy of Coumadin (or the generics) is measured by your INR tests, the blood test administered on a regular basis. If there are any differences in medications, the doctors can generally adjust the meds (and they often do). So, all in all, I don't think this is a big deal. My husband was on a Coumadin-type drug for a-fib. and was able to maintain a constant level with diet so he ended up only going monthly for his blood test.....

    Dear whiterose
    I wasn't trying to tell about the efficacy of coumadin. I've been on it for 2+ years now and I know all about the INR level. I was just trying to let you know what a previous oncologist and my CVS pharmacist told me. There are always inactive and active ingredients in medicines and sometimes a pharmacy may get the warfarin from XYZ pharmaceutical co and the next time they may get it from abc pharmaceutical co. The 2 companies may have different inactive ingredients. This had appeared in a cancer book I have mailed to me & I showed my white plains oncologist and she did say that it does happen, so from then on I went on name brand coumadin. I know it's more expensive but for my own piece of mind, I'd rather have the original company brand but that could just be me.
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