Recent experiences with generic propecia

[Nick23]

I have been on Propecia for 10 years with good results. Made a trip to Costco today for my usual 90-day refill, and the pharmacist let me know that the generic now costs $28 for a 90-day supply (versus $250 for propecia). Just a few months ago, when I did my last refill, the generic was still in the upper $100s, so the price has come down significantly. The pharmacist said they'd even need to special-order propecia if I wanted it because the demand for it had fallen so much.

I did a search in this forum for people's experiences with the generics, and the threads were a little old. Can those who have been on the generic provide any updates on their experiences? I'm new to this forum and have no stake in this battle except being curious as to whether to switch, but it seems that in the last thread, there were a lot of new posters whom people believed were shills for Merck. Anyways, I'm genuinely curious about people's experiences. And if you did switch to a generic, and had bad results and switched back to propecia, were you able to undo the damage by switching back?

 

[volagsrule]

I was on Propecia from May of 1999 up to February of 2013, so about 14 years. Worked fantastic. For all intents and purposes at age 43 I look like I have a normal head of hair. At age 28 I looked like I was going bald, because I WAS GOING BALD. Thankfully I've never had any side effects at all.

Then in February of 2103 CVS gave me Dr. Reddy's generic Propecia. I took that for about 10 months and it was just as effective and no side effects.

About 3 weeks ago CVS switched to another generic called "Accord HealthCare". So far in these 3 weeks I've noticed no difference.

Thus, I can't speak for anyone other than myself, but I haven't noticed any reduction in the effectiveness of the generics compared to the Merk.

 

[buddyspied]

Hey,

I was on a generic brand (pms) working fine for 21 months. Got switched to another generic company (sandoz) and noticed more hair falling out within the last 3 months. SO much so that in January I switched to real propecia for the first time since the price difference is nothing any more here in Canada. Got the side effects I had when I first started the pms version- acne on shoulders but that has now stopped. I am also noticing since the switch to propecia, losing small hairs (1-2 inches) only when drying hair. Hopefully the real propecia can regrow what I just lost in the last 3 months. I noticed a difference in the "feel" of my hair and thickness after 3 months on sandoz also. Seemed to be little advice for people in my boat on the web..

So, while I can't speak for others, there seems to be a difference for me at least in the way my body reacted to one generic vs another generic, now again with real propecia. Sadly the only way to know if something is working is to wait it out, but lets hope you\re "normal" and it doesn't happen to you. I have another chain I started and I'll update in two months to see if anything has happened. Good luck.

 

[Nick23]

Many thanks for the very helpful responses. I think I'll give the generic that Costco is selling a try and hope for the best -- I didn't ask the pharmacist what brand it was, but I'll report back.

 

[abcdefg]

Im just happy there are cheap generics finally after 20 years. Patent laws are so stupid at least Merk now finally has motivation to actually try to come up with something better or new now.

 

[Quantum Cat]

if companies couldn't patent their inventions they wouldn't bother inventing them in the first place!