If You Are A Doctor That's Ever Written A Prescription For Pexeva, You Are By Definition A Numbnut.

I think we have finally hit bottom.

In the 20 months I've been tending my little blog garden, I've been keeping an eye out for the most pointless, inane, rip-off piece of crap peddled by Big Pharma. There has never been a shortage of contenders, and I can't think of a better way to spend part of my day right now than by going over a few. That's what I do. I'm the Drugnazi.

Niravam- An orally disintegrating form of alprazolam, an anti-anxiety med available for years as Xanax and as a cheap as dirt generic. Not only will Niravam cost you more than 5 times the price of generic alprazolam, but alprazolam tablets are among the smallest you're gonna find, making the benefit of an orally disintegrating version a little dubious. But hey, I suppose there might be one or two people out there a bit too retarded to swallow a tablet the size of a grain of rice. (Price comparison from drugstore.com)

Bidil- A combination of isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine, two meds that have been on the market for years and are also cheap as dirt. Bidil combines the two old meds into one tablet, then markets itself to African Americans as a race specific remedy for heart failure. Of course there's no reason you can't prescribe the two drugs separately and save money, but hey, maybe it is easier for people to just swallow one tablet, and at least there is research to support the claim this combination of meds is more effective for black folks.

Moving up a level on the rip off scale we have:

Sarafem- The exact same fucking thing as Prozac. But hey, at least it comes in a different box so someone snooping in your medicine cabinet will just see that you're PMSing, not crazy.

Proquin XR- A pointless version of extended release ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic. But hey, the labeling says to take it with food, so they can claim it causes less stomach upset when taken as directed than the other extended release version of ciprofloxacin on the market, Cipro XR.

There's no way it can get worse than the med you are about to meet though, unless Big Pharma starts to make products that are actually less effective and more expensive than what they're designed to replace. Crap. Probably just gave them an idea. Anyway..... drum roll please.............

Introducing Pexeva. Brand name for paroxetine mesylate.

Paroxetine is already sold under the brand name Paxil. Paxil lost it's patent a few years back, prompting GlaxoSmithKline to introduce Paxil CR, itself a contender for most useless piece of drug crap ever. Pexeva though, is not a continuous release version of paroxetine. It doesn't come in a different package telling you it's for a different indication. It's not orally disintegrating. The maker of Pexeva, JDS Pharmaceuticals, has made it just different enough from Paxil (it is a different salt form, mesylate vs. HCl) that it isn't substitutable. Then they don't even respect your intelligence enough to try and bullshit you into thinking that makes any difference whatsoever in the two meds. They just want you to buy Pexeva, and pay 69% more for it than you would for generic paroxitine, (Price comparison from Consumer Reports)

Which leads to the question, why would any doctor ever write a prescription for Pexeva?

Because they're a dumbass, that's why. And if a Pexeva prescription is ever handed to you, tell your doctor I said so.