Very scary post from Abbott Boards about Amrix

A piece of advice...this is in no way the right place to get medical advice or information about your drug. It is basically an online water cooler for reps to come on and vent or complain.

 

As someone with a bad back and severe tension headaches which have been debilitating to the point of almost failing out of school, I have to say ... Amrix rocks. Flexeril, the IR version, not so much. I don't know what it is, but Amrix cools the heat and keeps it cooled. Even Soma doesn't do what this drug does. I'm seriously thankful to hear that the generic is around now. Great stuff.

 

I have no insurance, take a $300/month Cephalon product, and work a $15/hr job. I have coupons for now, but I'd still take it if I didn't.

The only reason I can keep my $15/hr job is the product, and the only hope I've ever had of making more rests on its performance.

$300/month is steep, but I can put a price on functionality. What would I make without it? What can I do with it?

 

is amrix for the elderly

 

I am a physician who regularly writes Amrix prescriptions, and not because it's heavily detailed since I haven't seen a Cephalon rep in months. Amrix actually works quite well for painful muscle spasms, much better than the generic cyclobenzaprine. The problem with the generic is a combination of excessive drowsiness and it's short half life--muscles relax but tighten up again in a couple of hours.
Amrix is especially effective off-label for fibromyalgia and there are a couple of clinical trials underway. Unfortunately, I am sure the reps can't mention this.
It is not useful for elderly because of the drowsiness effect

 

I'm glad to hear your success with Amrix. You haven't seen a rep promoting Amrix in months b/c the sales force that was responsible for it was laid off in June due to Cephalon losing a patent infringement suit against Teva, Mylan, and Anchen. Oh, and Cephalon didn't fight it b/c Teva agreed to buy Cephalon in early May.

 

No, it should not be used in the elderly. The plasma concentration and half-life of cyclobenzaprine are increased in the elderly compared to the general patient population.

 

If any of you truly understood how the pharmaceutical industry globally works, you would know that the research and development of new drugs, i.e. first in class, costs money. The U.S. foots the bill because other governments contract and limit use of branded products regardless of the patients needs. Without these "me-too" drugs (that quite frankly are in fact sometimes an improvement, for instance on the side-effect profile) the industry could not continue to develop life saving or changing drugs. These posts just demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the bigger picture beyond their individual territories. Instead of wasting time on this site, do some homework on socialized medicine and other healthcare systems ex-U.S. so that you realize this is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Without R&D in the pharmaceutical industry half the world would be dead because the only antibiotic we would have would be penicillin. There would be no chemotherapy, or insulin, etc. Patients should fight for their rights to get the medications they need/want. The ability to do so is one of the benefits of an open healthcare system. Be careful what you all wish for. If you don't like the drugs you sell, find another industry that will pay you what they do to regurgitate a package insert since that's all reps are allowed to do these days.

 

Listen, "Mr. Man of the World" you are completely wrong about the marketing practices in the US. For companies not under a CIA or in process of negotiating a CIA, regurgitating a package insert is far from the norm. No doubt, compliance department play a bigger role in all pharma companies, but many companies (not under a CIA) still distribute off-label articles under the auspices of the Washington Legal Foundation. These same companies still have something called "individual sales quotas", which totally determines bonus payout. The majority of the industry operates in this fashion with no plans on changing course. Warning, don't drink the Kool Aid, Cephalon business model of sales / marketing does not represent the direction of the industry.

 

$10 coupons are no linger available - CASH price $817.00
Not covered by insurance .

 

$126.81 for 30 amrix caps/30 mg from Medco came today in mail; my insurance won't pay for this muscle relaxing drug for my FM autoimmune disease, but $ goes toward my total overhead perscription cost so about June most of my drug costs are free with no co-pay at all. Generic flexeril does NOT work for my muscle spasms regardless of what drug company studies report. How much would you pay for 30 pills that made a difference in your life? Helga

 

You Amrix fans must be getting the kick-backs that Abbott seeds into physicians. Cyclo-ER worked great for me. Now after two months I cant get it from CVS (They say the manufacturer wont ship them any). BS! This is all about money and has nothing to do with good patient care. Same reason pot will never be legalized. Drug companies will pay the DEA whatever it takes so that we remain without anything to mitigate severe pain and the triggering caused by neuralgia. Abbott and their ilk cant make a fortune off of it so it sure cant be good for you. Someone pass me the JB.

Screw AMRIX, their reps, and the doctors who have a stake in this scam. Ought to take em all out and shoot em. Just joking, rather pray that they and their loved ones suffer from severe pain and spastic triggering.

 

I've been taking amrix for over a year now and my insurance company covers the script. I pay $20 a month for it. Guess it just depends on what kind of insurance you have. Oh and it's not the generic stuff.

 

I just got a RX for Amrix yesterday and my insurance covered it.

 

Hi, I was given AMRIX 15mg by my pain Mgt doctor to try in place of flexeril 10mg. This is what I found...the AMRIX worked BUT I did not wake up with the famous flexeril hangover, sleepy feeling. Take it once, in the evening and good for 24 hours. My insurance stopped covering it (imagine that), so my pain mgt doc gives me samples, which I take ONLY when absolutely needed as they are like gold to me. Well, now the phar company is not giving her any. Walgreens wanted to charge me $600 for 60 of them! So I get to feel like ick the next day on flexeril or have none when needed. Personally, I find it sad. They worked so much better for me. Oh well, such is life.

 

merck, which developed flexeril, did a very interesting study many years ago when they were thinking of trying to develop an OTC flexeril. They did a very large study in 600 or so patients with LBP and showed that flexeril 5 mg bid was as effective as higher doses. The FDA in the late 90's was just forming a generics division and merck never went further (it was a joint venture program with mcneil pharmaceuticals, the division of J and J). So the moral of the story is start off with 5 mg at nite and if need be move to 5 twice a day. The sedation with 5 mg twice a day was not different from placebo.

 

What troubles me is that the choice is being taken away completely by insurers, In December I was forced to switch to filling through that giant in the industry "Express Scripts" First they stated they were out of stock, now finally two month later--they told me that they can no longer get Amrix or the generic version as it is no longer being manufactured. They won't transfer the prescription to a local walk up pharmacy, so my only option is to go back to the doc--ask for a paper script and pay for it myself....if indeed it is available, I guess that's my next challenge--find out if manufacturing has stopped

 

I don't care if amrix is a miracle drug, I own my own business, I am not rich but I do okay, just stating that because the sellers on here like to say why amrix is so good for certain people. Still when I went to the pharmacist to pick up amrix he laughed and shoved the paper up to the window and said this thing is $500 so I didn't bother to fill it, I told him good because I wouldn't of bothered to pay for it. $500 for 30 days of anything unless its keeping you alive isn't worth it in my opinion. I will work with my other medications that are in-between $4 and $50 and live my life if I have to grit through a little bit of pain so be it. To pay over $450 more for something that the only difference is that it is time released is a rip off to everyone who is prescribed it.

 

Sadly some of us actually liked and used Amrix. The generic isn't even available now. That particular formulation didn't have the side effect of making one drowsy- unlike Flexiril (standard cyclobenzaprine).

 

I absolutely love Amrix, and it is covered by my insurance after I meet my deductible. Right now the pice is about $950 or so a month. I have tried every other muscle relaxant out there. I have my life back thanks to Amrix. Period.