Best Generic Brand?

Hi Irish and welcome to Breastcancer.org!

We just wanted to pop by to let you know you've joined an incredible Community here and you're sure to get some advice and answers from our members soon.

Please keep us all posted on what you decide!

--The Mods

Hullo, Irish - I've been on generic Femara for almost 20 months. In that time I've had almost no side effects, certainly no joint pain or trigger thumb, etc. My pharmacy has variously provided generics produced by Breckenridge, Sun (I think?) and Teva and I've noticed no difference between them. FWIW, CVS seems to favor Teva, so if you do well with that generic you might have good luck requesting it at CVS.

Good luck as you move on to the next phase of treatment. I hope the AIs (or Tamox) work out well for you.

Hi Irish65, I'm 54 and have Lupron injections and Femara. My doc checked my FSH levels, which were not quite low enough to be considered post-menopausal. (I can't take tamoxifen due to drug interactions.) The plan is to keep me on Lupron injections for one year, then stop them and re-check levels. I'm assuming I'll pause the Femara on the off-chance that I'm still not fully postmenopausal, looking forward to that.

My only SE on Femara are the hot flashes. Joints are great, no mood swings.

Good luck to you

Another consideration (and according to my shrink, a dirty little secret of drug companies) is that unlike what doctors, drugstores, insurers and generics mfrs. tell you--i.e., “generics are pharmacologically identical to brand-name drugs”--by law a generic must contain at least 75% of the active ingredient of the original patented brand-name drug. That's right--the generic letrozole or anastrozole you're taking may have only 3/4 the amount of the active ingredient in Femara or Arimidex even though the dose stated on the generic’s label is identical to that on the brand-name’s label.....and that's perfectly legal! (And there’s no way to determine that except by independent lab assay). That's probably why my husband finds his patients do better on Teva generics than on other generics, across the board, regardless of what type of drug (AI, antihypertensive, statin, antibiotic, painkiller, whatever). That and the fewer inactive ingredients that can trigger allergies or sensitivities.

Is anyone familiar with the activas brand of Tamoxifen? That's what my CVS uses. It says formerly Watson if that is familiar.I will be getting my script in a couple weeks and want to figure out where to get it filled. Thanks

Arista, tamoxifen is the generic name of the drug. AstraZeneca's patent on Novaldex expired in the early 2000s, opening up the generic market. Teva, Mylan, and Watson seem to be the most common manufacturers in the US. The FDA requires generic manufacturers to demonstrate that their drug has the same bioequivalence - delivers the same amount of the active ingredient in the same time frame as the brand name drug. There is no requirement for the fillers to be identical, so variations in the non-medicinal ingredients exist and this is what is attributed to the differing SEs that some women experience amongst differing brands. From the threads I've read on this forum about brands and the frequency and magnitude SEs, Teva users were more likely to experience fewer SEs. We all respond differently and with differing levels of sensitivities, so you may be fine with Mylan. If not, it is worth exploring another brand to see if it affects you to a lesser degree. Maybe you'll be lucky and experience negligible SEs. Joint issues are more commonly experienced with AIs than tamoxifen; muscle cramps and achiness are a more frequent SE with tamoxifen.