Coumadin Tablet Sizes (Dosages) Available

[ALCapshaw2]

Coumadin Tablet Sizes (Dosages) Available

After being unsure of the exact Tablet Dosages available,
I decided to check it out with a Google Search.

Coumadin and Generic Warfarin are offered in the following dosages:

1, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.5, and 10 mg

I was unable to copy the listing that showed the colors and dyes used but they are available on some of the Google Links. Note that 10 mg is is the only dose which contains NO dye.

'AL Capshaw'

 

[yotphix]

Sorry about the missing 4 and 6 mg tabs. They weren't part of this article.

 

[yotphix]

Here are the actual ingredients other than crystalline warfarin sodium though.
All strengths: Lactose, starch and magnesium stearate
1 mg: FD&C Red No. 6 Barium Lake
2 mg: FD&C Blue No. 2 Aluminum Lake and FD&C Red No. 40 Aluminum Lake
2-½ mg: FD&C Yellow No. 10 Aluminum Lake and FD&C Blue No. 1 Aluminum Lake
3 mg: FD&C Yellow No. 6 Aluminum Lake, FD&C Blue No. 2 Aluminum Lake andFD&C Red No. 40 Aluminum Lake
4 mg: FD&C Blue No. 1 Aluminum Lake
5 mg: FD&C Yellow No. 6 Aluminum Lake
6 mg: FD&C Yellow No. 6 Aluminum Lake and FD&C Blue No. 1 Aluminum Lake
7-½ mg: FD&C Yellow No. 10 Aluminum Lake and FD&C Yellow No. 6 Aluminum Lake
10 mg: Dye Free

 

[yotphix]

This one is way better.

 

[Protimenow]

The question has been raised about the dyes causing some people to have reactions. I suspect that the generics use the same colors, but does anyone know if they use the same dyes to create them?

It's been speculated that the colors in generics may be different from those used for the Squibb Coumadin, and that these different dying agents may have different side effects.

(This is not my speculation -- but in other threads some people suggested this).

 

[yotphix]

Oddly enough, red no. 6, and yellow no. 10, apparently used in the 1 mg and the 2.5mg tablets aren't on the list of 7 approved (for use in food) artificial food colourings. At least not according to wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_coloring
Hard to know what to make of that.

 

[yotphix]

A little deeper and it turns out, not surprisingly, that both are approved for cosmetics and medication. The red is only approved up till 5 mg in an average daily dose though. Seems those two are different from the rest though so anyone having adverse reactions may want to experiment with using 2mg or 5 mg tablets broken in half rather than 1mg or 2.5mg. You'd save a little money too!

 

[olefin]

They haven't changed over the years. My old Patient's Guide for Coumadin from DuPont shows pictures of the very same dosages available.

 

[Protimenow]

Certainly, over the years, the colors have stayed the same. There's no assurance that the dyes used to color the pills may not have been changed. (If, for example, 30 years ago a red dye was used that was later found to be carcinogenic, it would have been replaced by a different red dye that was not determined to be hazardous). The amount of dye used in these pills is minuscule - and the testing in lab animals would probably have required a truckload of the pills to equal the same amount of dye - so the dyes used in the pills is probably safe.

Personally, I use 1/2 of a 10 mg (which is undyed - and only because one of my doses should be 5 mg), and 1/2 of a 4 mg (and I didn't even think about the dye used to color the pill).

In another thread, it was speculated that the generics may use a different coloring agent, and that people may have reactions to this dye that they don't have to the Squibb Coumadin. I haven't checked the PDR to see what others are using, but as far as I can tell, the generics are bio-equivalent, and I don't know about side effects from any of the generics. I wouldn't be surprised if the coloring agents were also the same as the ones Squibb uses.