Posted by Rick on December 2, 2009, at 1:21:35
In reply to Re: medication without a prescription » ColoradoSnowflake, posted by Dr. Bob on December 2, 2009, at 0:55:11
One big irony here: When Provigil was first introduced, maker Cephalon was dismayed that the US (ridiculously) branded it a Class IV controlled substance (i.e., same class as benzos like Xanax or Klonopin). The US is apparently the only country that did so, based on one study that showed monkeys had a desire to keep taking it. (The reality is that getting off, say, Effexor is a helluva lot more difficult than quitting Provigil.)
Well, little did Cephalon know that the controlled-substance designation would later turn out to be a blessing to them and a curse to patients. Reason: Because Provigil is a controlled substance in the US, virtually no Canadian pharmacies will sell the hugely-cheaper Canadian equivalent, Alertec, to US customers. So in retrospect Cephalon is probably delighted they were slapped with the Class IV in the US, and were no doubt all-too-happy to accept the same restriction for their embarrassingly-named followup, Nuvigil.
BTW, I saw that in August CVS Caremark and Rite Aid filed suit against Cephalon and colluding generic makers for keeping generics unavailable to the public. They say that Provigil would have been generic in 20006 had the generic-makers not been paid off. Funny how the generic-makers' claimed altruistic mission to save consumers from price-gouging pharma companies withers when they get to improve the bottom line by making a cozy hands-off deal instead...
poster:Rick
thread:899375
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091127/msgs/927782.html