Cutting Finasteride into quarter!! Becareful.

[ahmadjaved]

once again hello,
i have to make a comment about those of u who use finasteride and cut it into quarter.
I am worried that since the tablets contain other chemicals other than the active ingredient finasteride. This means that when we cut the tablet into 1/4 then the finasteride must be distrubed/mixed equally with other active ingredient. If not then we are in big problem.

 

[bubka]

gone of this 123434893342938429 times, it would be an act of god to create a pill like finasteride that is not equally distributed

 

[Nathaniel]

Don't worry about that.

 

[pratc]

On a slightly different tack, there is a news item today, in the UK, about the dangers of cutting and crushing certain tablets, especially those with a coating. I just want to check it's OK for proscar (I don't think it has a coating(?))

 

[Bryan]

It definitely has a coating. But don't worry about it.

 

[pratc]

Bryan, thanks for the reply.

 

[joseph49853]

You only need to worry about splitting/crushing the tablets of caustic medications. The coating is there to protect the lining of your esophagus and stomach from burning. The medicine Fosamax or Urocit-K, used for osteoporosis, is a perfect example of this. There even some cases where an enteric coating only allows the medicine to be absorbed in the intestine, to increase efficacy.

There's no such concern for finasteride though. So don't worry. In fact, I've chewed off pieces of finasteride for years without a single problem.

BTW, any medical authority who states medications in pills aren't equally distributed doesn't understand the manufacturing and compression process. Not only are they wrong, but they probably need to visit their local pharmaceutical plant.

 

[Nathaniel]

In fact, I've chewed off pieces of finasteride for years without a single problem.
.

I chew my finasteride all the time, to better absorption :wink:

 

[blakes30]

gone of this 123434893342938429 times, it would be an act of god to create a pill like finasteride that is not equally distributed

why is that?

would you elaborate on how you know this?

 

[ShedMaster]

gone of this 123434893342938429 times, it would be an act of god to create a pill like finasteride that is not equally distributed

why is that?

would you elaborate on how you know this?

you must understand the pharmachutical manufacturing process, batch production means it is almost impossible for the active ingredient to NOT be spread uniformly

 

[blakes30]

that's what i am trying to understand---the manufacturing process!!!

what type of process is it that ensures even distribution?

 

[Guest]

that's what i am trying to understand---the manufacturing process!!!

what type of process is it that ensures even distribution?

here is what you must understand!!

what type of process is it that ensures uneven distribution? the burden's on you. the evidence is against you, blakes.

 

[blakes30]

evidence is against me? that's a good try!!!!

if you don't know how to explain it, or you are just repeating what you've heard, then man up and admit it

i didn't claim either way that is uneven or even---so i can't back anything up, since i didn't claim to know in the first place

on the other hand, for those of you who claim to have acquired knowledge of the manufacturing process of pill making, let's here the rationale behind why the active ingredient is distributed evenly in the pill!!!! otherwise, i'm still hearing opinions

Making Pills The Smart Way
Drugmakers are revamping factories to save money and avoid production mishaps

Manufacturing has been the poor stepchild of the pharmaceutical industry," says Jeffrey T. Macher of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

The traditional approach: figure out by trial and error how to do each of many steps, from mixing to drying to coating tablets. Then, after each step, take samples and test to see if they meet specifications. The testing alone can take days or weeks.

This revolution in drug manufacturing is still in its early stages. There are big gaps, for example, in understanding the basic physics of powders. But slowly, drugmaking is being transformed from an art into a science.


http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_18/b3881602.htm

 

[blakes30]

US Marshals Seize Millions of Defective Paxil & Avandamet pills_NYT

Mon, 7 Mar 2005

The FDA and federal marshals yanked millions of tablets of the antidepressant, Paxil CR (Seroxat, controlled release) and the diabetes drug, Avandamet, off the market because they are defective. The Paxil pills split during manufacturing, and the medication in Avandamet is not evenly distributed. GlaxoSmithKline has not resolved these manufacturing issues for three years.

Although the FDA plays down the risk to patients in its public statement on FDA's website, there is a potential danger for patients taking the wrong dose of Paxil or abruptly interrupting the intake of Paxil.

"FDA is not aware of any harm to consumers by the products subject to this seizure and it does not believe that these products pose a significant health hazard to consumers. Consequently, FDA urges patients who use these two drugs to continue taking their tablets and to talk with their health care provider about possible alternative products for use until the manufacturing problems have been corrected."

If advised to take two halves of a pill�each might contain a full day's dose�this would put the patient at risk of taking double the prescribed dose. Or, the two halves might contain no active ingredient�thereby putting the patient at risk from sudden withdrawal symptoms. In either case, the patient would be at increased risk of suffering severe side effects. Most patients who suffered severe adverse drug side effects from Paxil, did so when doses were increased or abruptly decreased. Susceptible patients became irritable, hostile, aggressive, impulsive, violent and suicidal.

Even when properly manufactured, the severe adverse side effects of Paxil require extensive warnings�including a Black Box warning for under 18 year olds. Clearly a defective version of this product puts patients at increased risk of harm. FDA's advice to "continue taking their tablets" seems irresponsible.

Indeed, Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, a psychopharmacologist who chairs the department of psychiatry at Columbia University, alluded to the possibility of severe withdrawal from Paxil, when he told the New York Times:

"Paxil was the wrong drug to skip for a day. Paxil remains in the bloodstream far shorter than Prozac."

Drug companies' failure to comply with product control safety standards is a continuing battle about which physicians and the public are mostly unaware. The Times reports: "Schering-Plough, Eli Lilly, Wyeth and Abbott Laboratories all have run afoul of F.D.A. manufacturing rules in recent years. Schering-Plough paid a $500 million fine in 2002." Drugs manufactured in sub-standard plants are marketed in the US�thereby contradicting the administration's argument that drugs imported from Canada would pose a health hazard.

 

[blakes30]

The Journal of the American Pharmacist’s Association’s 2002 study showed that less than 35% of tested tablets that were split in half met the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) standards of tablet weight variation and intact dosage unit.
Many people have realized that the same drug at any strength costs about the same price; thus it is more economical to get a higher strength medication and split the tablet to approximate the correct dosage at half the cost. The bulk of a pills’ cost comes from packaging, advertising, and research and development, not the actual chemical content. Therefore, most prescription drugs actually cost the same amount (or very close) regardless of the dosage, meaning that a 20mg pill of a certain medication could cost the exact same amount as a 40mg pill. This has caused a great many seniors to practice pill splitting in an effort to relieve the strain of prescription drug costs.

 

[blakes30]

Some cost-conscious consumers, particularly financially pressed seniors, might sense an opportunity with this information, thinking that they could, for example, follow their doctors' orders to take 40mg of Lipitor a day by cutting 80mg tablets in half.

If Lipitor and Zocor were scored -- meaning a notch is etched in the middle of the pill -- then they could easily cut it in half. But neither tablet is scored, says Goar Alvarez, a pharmacy professor at Nova Southeastern.

The lack of scoring might mean the ingredients are not distributed evenly in the pill, or simply that the manufacturer chooses not to score the pill. (Pfizer and Merck did not respond to questions over why their pills weren't scored.)

Without a score, Alvarez says, it would be dangerous for a consumer to split a tablet.

http://www.med.miami.edu/communications/som_news/index.asp?id=212

 

[blakes30]

He also emphasized that tablets do not contain the exact amount of medication in the two halves, a fact already well known by health officials at the Food and Drug Administration. People who need an exact dose of their medication could fall far short because of the way a tablet is manufactured, Kellner said.

Rather than patients splitting their pills at home, Kellner said he'd prefer to see an end to what he calls "predatory pricingâ€￾ by pharmaceutical companies.

....said Curtis Kellner, director of pharmacy at the University Hospital and Medical Center at Stony Brook.

 

[Guest]

thats some nice data. avacor?

 

[Bryan]

If Lipitor and Zocor were scored -- meaning a notch is etched in the middle of the pill -- then they could easily cut it in half. But neither tablet is scored, says Goar Alvarez, a pharmacy professor at Nova Southeastern.

The lack of scoring might mean the ingredients are not distributed evenly in the pill, or simply that the manufacturer chooses not to score the pill. (Pfizer and Merck did not respond to questions over why their pills weren't scored.)

Baloney. The lack of scoring does NOT mean that the ingredients are not evenly distributed in the pill.

ALL INGREDIENTS ARE EVENLY DISTRIBUTED IN PILLS, unless the pill was manufactured in a grossly deficient way in the first place.

Bryan

 

[bubka]

some of the pills with special time releasing fillers / matrix / coatings will effect if you cut them, finasteride is not one of them

if the drug is not evenly distributed, they have no way of knowing how much total active drug is in the pill