Give me one good reason Proquin XR should exist.
Just one reason this piece of crap should be taking up any space on my shelf.
"To fatten the profits of Depomed and Esprit Pharma" doesn't count. I said a good reason.
If you can do it, I will sign over my next paycheck to you.
First some background as to why I am so confident you will never lay a hand on my money. Proquin XR is an extended-release version of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin, which has been around for years and is now available as a generic. It's not unusual for a "cr" "xr" or "xl" version of a drug to come out just as the original is losing it's patent protection. The rationale you'll hear from Drug Companies is that by making a longer acting version of a drug, they're increasing the effectiveness of therapy by making it more likely the patient will remember to take their meds as they should. Fine. Put aside the fact that the price the patient pays for being a lazy ass is almost always completely out of proportion to the benefit. At least you can argue there is a benefit.
Thing is, ciprofloxacin has had a profit-enhancing more convenient to take form for awhile now. For those of you who can't handle taking a tablet every 12 hours and are willing to pay up, there is Cipro XR. The once a day convenience will add about 55% to the cost of treating your urinary tract infection. Worth it to someone I suppose. I've learned never to underestimate the more money than brains demographic.
Now along comes Proquin XR. The name "Proquin" comes from the Latin words "pro," which means "for" and "quin," which means "no apparent reason" Proquin is an extended release form of ciprofloxacin, just like Cipro XR, and you take it once a day, just like Cipro XR. There are some very important differences between Proquin and Cipro XR though:
1) The official labeling of Proquin advises patients to take it with food. This allows them to claim that when taken as directed it has a lower incidence of GI side effects than Cipro XR or generic ciprofloxacin.
2) It costs 38% more than Cipro XR, and 114% more than generic ciprofloxacin. (all prices come from my place of employment)
3) The tablets are a very attractive shade of blue, as opposed to the ciprofloxacin's rather boring off-white.
The most important difference of all though is the particular extended-release mechanism used by Proquin. Since it is different from Cipro XR's mechanism, it means that the two products are not exactly the same, and therefore not substitutable by me unless I call your doctor. Which I won't. I call your doctor when he or she's doing something that might hurt or kill you, not when he's or she is wasting money. This will be the only warning you get. Use it well.
5 comments:
A good reason it should exist is because it's a pretty blue and my favorite color is blue! That's why! Now give me that paycheck!
The paycheck is yours as soon as you get a prior auth approved based on blueness....:)
As for Jesse, yeah, the Latin was a joke. I'm usually better at pointing those out.
I had forgotten about Niravam. It certainly deserves it's own hate post as well. Of course all the people who have such a problem swallowing that tiny alprazolam will magically disappear around the time of the Niravam patent expiration.
I could get a prior auth to go through based on it being blue. All one would have to do is say that the patient says the little white tabs don't work for her, but her doctor gave her samples of the little blue ones and they work like a charm. PAYUP!
But Niravam is orange flavored. How good is that?!
Sure it's silly to pay for an orally-disintegrating tab that doesn't work any faster than any generic alprazolam tab (per the Niravam website), but orange flavored? I'm sure that sounds good to all citrus lovers who happen to have deep pockets!
Another reason to hate Proquin XR:
Illiteracy in Esprit Pharma's marketing department
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