Thursday, April 17, 2014

Generic Mepron, finally!

If you have been diagnosed with Babesia, then your doctor has probably prescribed an oral liquid drug called Mepron. At least in my experience, my insurance company would not spring for the drug. If you've been in my boat, you know that it costs about $1000 dollars a bottle, out-of-pocket.

Glaxo/SmithKline has a little bit of compassion for those in extreme poverty, via their program called Bridges to Access. If you can show low enough income, this 'big pharma' company will sometimes take pity on you and give you a bottle or two for free. That worked for me, once. To their credit, they actually did send me two free bottles. You have to jump through hoops by proving that you're disabled, and/or showing your tax returns for the previous year, and whatnot. Probably only folks inside the company know exactly what the secret recipe is for qualifying. However, many financially-strapped Lyme patients who have (or whose doctors suspect they have) Babesia have been forced to use a previous generation drug, similar to Mepron, called Malarone. Like Mepron, Malarone is an antimalarial drug that is also effective at killing Babesia and actually makes it into the brain which is where "Babs" likes to do its dirty work. Malarone is more likely to be covered by typical insurance drug plans. However, Malarone has some funky side effects such as nightmares. So, it was exciting to see this piece of news come across my desk today:

FDA approves Amneal Pharmaceuticals' ANDA for atovaquone oral suspension

http://drugstorenews.com/article/fda-approves-amneal-pharmaceuticals-anda-atovaquone-oral-suspension

1 comment:

  1. I realize that supposedly there is a generic version of Mepron/Wellvone but does anyone know of how or where it can be found and purchased?
    Ken

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