Is All Generic Coreg the Same?
I have been on generic Coreg, Carvedilol 3.125 since I had my heart attack nearly two years ago. For the most part, no complaints and no side effects...yay me. I do understand that many of you all suffer dearly from the side effects of this drug and cannot tolerate it well. Well, when I first go on the med, it was a tiny football shaped pill, which quickly changed to a small round white tablet. My pharmacist closed and I transferred to a new pharmacy and all of a sudden the med was a tiny round white pill. I inquired right away about the change and was told not to worry that it was indeed the same med, just a different maker of the generic. All went well from thereon until recently. About 3 weeks ago, I went to pick up my refill and lo and behold, the pills were back to the football shaped ones. I looked on my bottle and there was a nice yellow sticker describing that this was the same med that I had been taking for months, just a new maker. Ok, I don't know if it's the new med, but it seems as though almost instantly upon starting the new bottle of football shaped pills, I began to experience shortness of breath when I begin my walking regimen. I have been walking 3 miles a day for almost a year now. I recently had a visit with my cardio doc and all was stable according to him. Do you all think that my sudden shortness of breath when walking could be due to a new side effect of the new generic drug?
12 Replies
I am also on the small white round Carvedilol 6.25 - 2xs a day. I had a similar experience with Losartan. It was white football shaped and when I switched to my mail in RX they came back blue. I noticed mild nausea so I looked them up on some drug web site and found that the blue ones were manufactured in Israel. No offense to any foreign country, but I requested my doctor to write a new RX for the drug and request the manufacturer "Sandoz" only (original yet still generic). Same with my Protonix medication, as the generic does not work nearly as good as the "Brand", so I will pay the extra $ and get what works, but the doctor has to write the RX stated BRAND ONLY.
Not sure if your SOB is related to the different drug, but brand, and different generics contain different inert ingredients that you may be sensitive to.
Oh boy, this is on target today! I did brand Coreg...fine (a little SOB but I thought that is normal), tried generic a couple of years ago. Felt different, and my bottom right lip would twitch...felt like it was wearing off.
Again tried generic last week (round), have felt hypoglycemic...shaky, racy. When I would take xanax, i would relax for about an hour and then feel more shaky/buzzy. Looked up cardevilol and indeed it said, can promote glycemic issues and to be cautious about that. Today, asked my NP to give me Brand name Coreg again and she did. Just took my dose. We'll see if it feels "normal again or not. It is not the same, no matter what they say!
Take care ~ Mary
Generics can vary from one manufacturer to another. I experienced some unpleasant side-effects years ago when a generic I was taking was refilled with a drug from a different manufacturer. (The names are often on the Rx label, though you'll usually see a difference in what the pills look like.) I mentioned it to the pharmacist and she switched my Rx back to the drug from the company that worked well. So, yes there can indeed be a difference not only in how you feel, but also in side-effects you experience from the med. For these reasons, sometimes it is better to take the brand name and not the generic.
If you do notice a difference between one drug company and another, do mention it to the pharmacy as they may be able to switch it for you.
Thanks ladies for the replies. I will call my pharmacist this morning and discuss thie matter with him.
My son has been on the same generic brand of Coreg for three years now. When we were forced to start mail ordering our prescriptions his doctor told us to keep this one at our local pharmacy. That way they could guarantee it would always be from the same manufacturer. It isn't that the generic is different from the brand name.....it's that other companies may use different "fillers" to bind the drug and that may be what you are more sensitive too. My son is doing so well, he was afraid to even change him to the name brand version.
Lisa
will you please let us know what the pharmacist has to say? Thanks in advance..
Spoke to the pharmacist and he told me that the manufacturer of the round shaped generic Coreg is no longer making this one, thus the change to the football shaped with a different manufacturer. The pharmacist did a good job of explaining to me about the test that any drug must go through in order to be approved for effectiveness. I told him that I was not questioning the effectiveness but I just knew that suddenly I was feeling different immediately upon taking the new generic. He told me that a few patients insist on using the orginal Coreg and encouraged me to come in and get a 14 day trial of it, which I did. I will begin the original Coreg 3.125 this evening. I take this drug twice daily. I will let you all know the outcome no matter what.
I too take the Coreg of your same dosage and it is a small oval white pill. Whenever I get a pill that looks different,I look it up under google images by putting in the pill and the dosage.There are also websites that show you all the different looks of the same pill depending on maker. I did have a pharmacy give me the wrong pill once so now I am very careful. Some pills can have a slightly
different composition depending on maker but it would be unusual to have that pill make you feel differently. My shortness of breath this week was due to the pollen and not my pills, but it is a good idea to discuss your symptoms with your doctor and/or the pharmacy.
Shamal
I have been taking the football shaped Carvidilol and have not had any problems. As much as I would like to use all the brand names I simply can't afford the co pays. It can be hard to have them from different manufacturers though. The active ingredient is the same but as someone else stated the fillers used can vary from one to the other.
I wanted to share one other thing that appears to have happened immediately upon me switching the generics. I began having the most vivid dreams, nothing scary or morbid but just very vivid and detailed. I read that one possible side effect of a beta blocker is vivid dreams.
I am sensitive to so many drugs and have been short of breath continually. I never thought about coreg being the culprit, but
I will certainly discuss it with my doctor and research it on the internet. Thanks for the info.
I wanted to give an update on what is going on regarding my trial run of original Coreg versus generic Coreg. I wish to report that although I am only on my fourth day of Coreg, it appears that my shortness of breath while walking has diminished for the most part. I actually feel better now than when I was on the generic, well the football shaped generic anyway. The orginal Coreg looks virtually identical to the generic Coreg, except that the points of the football are a little more pointed than the generic version. Oh, and no more weird and vivid dreams either.