Coumadin 5mg availability in Australia

[pellicle]

Just as Perrier, Evian and Dasani are all water with slight differences in mineral content, Coumadin, Marevan and others are all warfarin, with slight differences in the bulking agent.

apparently the issue is that Tom (still?) doesn't know that. Perhaps also Tom doesn't understand that in some instances (IIRC even in the USA) brand substitution is not allowed.

But that's the benefit of this community, issues can surface and we can all (potentially) learn something.

 

[tom in MO]

apparently the issue is that Tom (still?) doesn't know that. Perhaps also Tom doesn't understand that in some instances (IIRC even in the USA) brand substitution is not allowed.

But that's the benefit of this community, issues can surface and we can all (potentially) learn something.

In the US brand substitution is allowed for warfarin.

In the global pharmaceutical marketplace the Coumadin one buys could very well have been manufactured in the same plant and in the same manner as the generic warfarin. The name on your prescription bottle is the supplier which is not always the same manufacturer or plant as the bottle you got last year from the same supplier. That could be why Keefo's Chemist (Pharmacist in the US) recommended the switch from Coumadin to Marevan. I'd hazard a guess the Chemist may know more about the bioequivalence of Marevan to Coumadin than Keefo's doctor

 

[Keefo]

A quick search shows the active ingredient in Marevan is warfarin. I'd check my INR 5-days after switching to make sure everything is OK.

Chemists will not administer Marevan in place of Warfarin. The doctor is also very reluctant to move me to M. Too complex, where his words.

 

[Keefo]

Good Morning Keefo


bummer


IIRC there are still issues until June ... but you can get other sizes (which I suggest you do) and make them up.


I don't know if you know this but every country has tight regulations (really tight, with very harsh penalties) for the importation of drugs. Yes, all drugs which are regulated ... not just weed like cannabis. If you don't have a prescription for it and its been dispensed with a label on the bottle that coincides with your prescription and you're caught with it then huge fines and depending on quantity Jail time.

Sure, aspirin or paracetamol are drugs. But you can get caught (say) coming back from the USA and having something (codine) which is available over the counter that's not allowed here (in Oz).




If you do the switch, are you a self tester? If you aren't then it will likely result in a clinic incompetency induced yo-yo of your INR till they work it out.

If you are then it'll be trivial through to no problem. Its a crap shoot because "it depends" on what you get. Myself I suspect that the Coumadin and Marevan we get here are closer formulations than other places (if you've read my above cautionary post).

Best Wishes

I'd be willing to take on that risk. Good luck finding a judge who is not sympathetic to the story:
Judge: So you will likely die or most certainly have a stroke, if you don't take the drug?
Me: Yes Your Honor
Judge: and you've detailed here, the length that you went, to source this Warfarin, in Australia?
Me: Yes Your Honor
Judge addressing the Prosecutor: You do realise that this drug saves the patients life and that he was unable to find it, in Australia, when for the past 15 years, he has done?
Prosecutor: Ummmmm, yes.
Judge: Get the F our of my courtroom you bumbling bafoon!

I dare the law to take me on.

 

[pellicle]

I dare the law to take me on.

why involve the law? Just go to your Dr and say "can I have a script for 5mg of marevan and cite that they are basically the same and you're a self tester and "intention to treat is INR" not dose.

reach out I can show you my model of how to work our doses based on INR results quickly and (sufficiently) accurately

 

[geoffreyt]

Further to your comments, is 5mg Warfarin available (in any form) in Queensland ? Or is 2mg still on limited supply. It seems odd that Scrips have only 3 repeats and each supply is 1 bottle of 2mg, where before I would get 1 bottle of 5mg and 1 bottle of 2mg. I hope this supply issue is solved sooner rather than later.

 

[pellicle]

Further to your comments, is 5mg Warfarin available (in any form) in Queensland

Hi

assuming you were asking me, yes.
I've had unbroken continuity of supply of Marevan

where before I would get 1 bottle of 5mg and 1 bottle of 2mg. I hope this supply issue is solved sooner rather than later.

follow my directions above:

... Just go to your Dr and say "can I have a script for 5mg of marevan and cite that they are basically the same and you're a self tester and "intention to treat is INR" not dose.

if you have any doubts then just call your usual pharmacy and ask "do you have 5mg of Marevan in stock"

I really don't see why (especially in this situation) that getting an additional prescription, when backed by reasonable expectation that you can manage your INR effectively, should be problem.

 

[acki46]

Went to my local pharmacies earlier this week and it appears that 5mg Coumadin is back in stock (in the 'new' blue bottles).

Happy days!