For over thirty years I've been taking Atenolol for high blood pressure. Another name for it is Tenormin. Now suddenly the pharmacies can't get it and say I should ask my doctor for something else. I don't want to start taking another HBP drug.
Is anyone on this group taking Atenolol or Tenormin?
A few years ago a doctor cut my prescription down to 50 mg from 100 mg, for two weeks, and it felt like long needles were stabbing me in the heart. It also felt like someone reached into my chest and was squeezing my heart, and the top of my head felt like it was going to pop off.
I'm worried about side effects. Anyone else having problems getting medication?
30 years ago when Atenolol went generic the pharmacy offered me all kinds of gifts and coupons to keep taking the original instead of the generic. The problem is probably all about money. They probably make a lot more money on a different medication.
I don't want to have a stroke or heart attack so they can make more money.
On Tuesday, September 19, 2017 at 2:28:48 PM UTC-5, mysterious traveler wro te:
Another name for it is Tenormin. Now suddenly the pharmacies can't get it a nd say I should ask my doctor for something else. I don't want to start tak ing another HBP drug.
or two weeks, and it felt like long needles were stabbing me in the heart. It also felt like someone reached into my chest and was squeezing my heart, and the top of my head felt like it was going to pop off.
of gifts and coupons to keep taking the original instead of the generic. T he problem is probably all about money. They probably make a lot more money on a different medication.
Ummmmmmm, I'm not sure why you thought a repair group would be the best choice to ask your health questions. But in your case have you even spoken to your doctor about this?
I'm taking atenolol and lisinopril. I got a new prescription (90 count) jes 2 wks ago. I take three drugs, 2 fer high blood pressure
--a close buddy jes had a major stroke due to high blood pressure-- and one fer gout (allopurinal).
I've seen no issues with atenolol, but the price of my allopurinol has tripled ($15->$45)! My pharmacist merely shrugged when I asked why. A lady behind me jes nodded, like this is normal.
nb --disregard all above!!
PS: I jes called my pharmacy. They told me atenolol has been back ordered and to get a new prescription from my doc. My prescription bottle sez: "Mfg: ZYDUS PHARMACE" Looks like I'll be seeing my doc, sometime soon. 8|
Atenolol is beta blocker and is used to treat angina (chest pain) and hypertension (high blood pressure). It is also used to treat or prevent heart attack.
There are a boatload of both generic and name brand beta blockers on the market. Despite what Big Pharma advertising says, they are more alike than different.
Finding another beta b;ocker that works well for you shouldn't be a problem.
Tenormin is the trade name for the drug Atenolol. < beta blocker > The all-knowing Wiki says that other medications are now in vogue - I just started on hyper-tension meds this year - neither are beta blockers - ramipril and nifedipine.
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Your doctor should be able to explain everything - bring a notepad full of questions and write down his answers. John T.
Bottom line .... Atenolol is an inexpensive drug, at $4, which is why it?s such a popular medication to be prescribed. Compare that price to its generic, where you will pay $384.78. This is what pharmacies have been doing for a few years now, find a generic, change it a bit and get it patented then get the FDA to ban the generic ... they did it with the nitroglycerin pills I carry. There are more pharmacies in this small city than bars or pizza places... big bucks for little pills.
John, have you noticed any side effects with the Ramipril? I had a persistent, severe cough when I took it. I thought at times I would bring up a lung it was such a strong cough. My doctor said that was one of the side effects of Ramipril with close to half of the popu- lation. Within two weeks after stopping this pill I was cough free.
While I am not for the government stepping in on anything, something needes to be done about the drugs in the US. My wife was given a scrip to take a drug to keep her from getting constipated. It was going to be $ 395 a month because the insurance did not want to pay for it. Finally they did at the higher price range of $ 35. She was given another drug for about $ 300 per month. Changed to a different one and it was $ 5 per month.
Those Epi pens just went way up for no reason other than they could. It was not like they just came on the market.
We have two pharmacies in town, neither have it. In the next state over CVS has it but doesn't take my insurance, but for less that $20.00 I can pay out of pocket for that. Thanks for the links. Walgreen's said the same thing about the missing ingredient, but they're out too. I actually have a ninety day supply my doctor doesn't know about from a mixup a few years ago where I ended up with two prescriptions and kept it for emergencies like this, or WWIII, and still have some 50 mg ones, but not many.
It helped to save pain medication too, like when my doctor wanted to get rid of his pain management patients, and was gone for various reasons over four weeks time. He had complained to me about how much trouble he was having with bureaucracy over pain medication, had been to court over it a few times. After he was gone for four weeks many pain management patients went somewhere else.
I had the same problem with lisinopril. Now take amlodipine without cough. It was a royal PITA because to make sure my doctor ordered chest xray and that led to two ct scans and pft tests over a 6 month period. My lungs are fine. Found out that many have this problem. I would not call it a side effect but more of main effect. I take a bunch of other things including beta blocker and other bp med. Not unusual for us old folks.
There's a little store chain in this area of the US called Allsup's where they sell burritos guaranteed to get rid of constipation. Most people who buy a burrito get a bottle of Pepto at the same time. Burritos are only around $1.50 each. Burrito or high dollar medication? Do the math. Maybe you need to take the wife out to dinner at an Allsup's. Those burritos are called gut grenades around here.
More government involvement in anything will make it more expensive. The FDA needs to be reformed and its swamp drained.
Why should a drug that has been approved in maybe 50 countries including Europe and Japan need severe FDA scrutiny? That is a reason drugs are cheaper in Mexico and Canada. People should see the movie, "Dallas buyers club" where people around the world were living with aids because of the drugs allowed there and people here were dying waiting for FDA approval.
Why should it take 3 years to get a generic drug approved?
Our legal system can share the blame. A one in a million side effect can result in million dollar law suits. I saw this a few years ago when only one company in the US was making flue vaccine while it was readily available from many manufacturers in Europe. You were not allowed to sue there if side effect had been disclosed yet you still too the vaccine.
That would be a first, the generic costing 100 times what the name brand drug costs. You sure you don't have that backwards? From what I see, Atenolol is the generic, it's the generic for Tenormin. His problem seems to be that neither is available?
Assuming that conspiracy is happening, I would think it would be the drug companies doing it, not the pharmacies. What I have seen happening is the FDA has started insisting that some common drugs that never went through even basic safety testing , now be put through that testing. An example is Colchicine, used to treat gout flare ups. It's been used for 100+ years, so it never went through anything like the safety testing we have today. So, there must be a law that allows the FDA to decide that now it has to undergo such testing. What they do is find a drug manufacturer that agrees to do the expensive testing and then that drug manufacturer gets the exclusive right to market it for X years. The same drug that's been used for 100 years is now a brand name and the generic is no longer legal. In the case of Colchicine, the new name is Colchrys and like you say, it's like 25 times the cost of the former cheap generic.
Whether it's worth doing that, I agree, seems highly questionable. And the real motive may in fact be a conspiracy between the FDA and drug manufacturers. Or it could just be typical big govt, we are here to make sure everything is 100% safe, etc. Some good does come from it though. In the case of colchicine, the dosing had been to keep taking it every hour until the gout symptoms abated or until you got nauseous, sick. The new testing showed that taking two pills to start, one pill an hour later produced essentially the same results. But that's not a lot for the 25x price increase, that will last many years.
What his problem is, IDK. It could be that because it's an old drug, there are better new ones at reasonable prices, it's just not very profitable so the remaining supplier or suppliers are backing out.
In this line of discussion, there are all kinds of examples that one encounters that should be looked into *before* politicians claim to have the fix for healthcare costs and insurance.
UGH! Many times my cough would wake me in the middle of the night while I was comatose with sleep. That was aggravating and I'm so glad my doctor took me off that medicine. It did a great job lowering my b/p but heavens, how annoying!!
Most physicians are board certified pharmaceutical pushers. They don't want you to know you could actually cure cardiovascular disease and hypertension by eliminating refined carbohydrates from your diet.
There's a lot of money to be made pushing hypertension, blood sugar and cholesterol/statin drugs.
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