Letrozole prices

Romla

Well my friend talked to me about Chemist Warehouse as she was going off to the city on the bus for her scripts.She said she found her generic scripts much cheaper.She took the name Letrozole and asked them how much - was told $24.40. Last script I bought locally was $36.60. Might pay to do a bit of comparison shopping people - that’s $144 more per year.

Afraser

All for saving money but some people find they have reactions to some  letrozole brands - it's not the active ingredient but the binders that vary. Worth trying but also worth watching. 

Romla

@Afraser I gave  my friend the exact brand details including texting(?) a photo.

Afraser

Good plan, @Romla! 

Vangirl

Thanks @Romla definitely going to check this out.

Romla

@Afraser just had a thought on my walk - quite a few on here are having trouble on Letrozole.Maybe , if they have given their current brand a decent go and before switching AI , it might be worth trying a different brand of Letrozole to see if different binders make things any easier. Just a possibility.

Romla

I have heard of 3 manufacturers of Letrozole - Sandoz , Apotek and @ kmakm mentioned another one. your comment

Romla

Omg ?  Why is my post ending with your comment not my words sorry

Afraser

Novartis makes Femara. I was told by my oncologist that joint pain was very common on letrozole, so I think that risk may be common to all brands, but some other lesser side effects may possibly be the binders. I have never had any pain, but had vaginal atrophy in 6 months! Win some, lose some. I tried Arimidex for a few months with my oncologist's blessing but it made no difference. He said it wouldn't!  

Vangirl

@Romla the ladies on the UK BC message board I used to frequent swear that the different brands have different side effects but my oncologist dismissed that idea outright.

@Afraser do you have a link or reference to information about brands and binders? Something I could bring up with my oncologist?

Afraser

I don't have a specific scientific reference (not a scientist sorry) but it's about excipients used in all tablets - they actually make up a surprisingly high percentage of the stuff you swallow. They are of course controlled by safety standards but it seems quite possible that some excipients may cause unintended side effects in some people. Allergies are cited as the most likely as the excipients may include something that the patient is allergic to but doesn't know they are taking - lactose for example. Or possibly might interact with other medication. As I indicated, I don't think excipients cause joint pain - that's the letrozole. The only way to know if there is any difference is to compare, over a reasonable period of time. But I'd want my oncologist to sanction that. 

Romla

Found this on a UK site called Macmillan and thought you might be interested @Vangirl

I've just started on letrozole a month ago on Sun brand  and after reading all the experience of ladies on here, I tried to check exactly what the differences are between the various brands. It is possible to check the detailed ingredients (active (letrozole) and inactive/excipients)  by looking at the 'summary of product characteristics' which is available from the manufacturers and what is held by the licensing authority.

There are a couple of key points;  

1.Cipla and Teva both contain tartrazine, but the others don't. Others use iron oxide yellow for colouring. Cipla also has iron oxide red as well as iron oxide yellow. None of the others do. These two brands are the most different from Femara original. 

2. Sandoz and Femara (Novartis) look identical across all ingredients.

3. Accord and Zentiva are essentially identical to Sandoz.

4. Sun Pharma is almost the same as Sandoz except for Sun contains PEG (water soluble binder )  and povidone ( a water soluble stabiliser) . Both these are very common stable additives, non-toxic,  without any particular SEs 

5.  Actavis is almost the same as Sandoz except it contains polyvinyl alcohol - a water soluble, stable, commonly used non-toxic additive in the coating. 

There are loads of complaints on this site about Cipla .

Afraser

Also see @Romla's thread on letrozole brands

Vangirl

Thanks @Afraser and @Romla will read and digest this in the morning.

kmakm

@Vangirl My oncologist said I could try a different brand because they are all formulated a bit differently. She mentioned the lactose intolerance bit as well. She said some of her patients had had luck doing this.

Deanne

I pay $25.39 for Femara at Chemist Warehouse. It’s worth the extra 10 mins drive to get it there rather than the closest chemist which does not always have my brand in stock either.