My last refill on Aricept before the generic came out was in October 2010. The cost for three month's supply was $652.11 ($7.25 each). The next two refills of the generic —January and April—cost $407.09 ($4.52 each). When I picked up my refill yesterday, I looked at the price and had the clerk check to see if the refill had been made correctly. She checked and then had someone else double check. The cost for a three month supply of the generic was $22.95 (.255 cents each). I will be saving over $2500 a year on this one RX alone. I don’t know whether to be happy over what I am saving or cry over what I have paid them in the past ten years.
And all these drugs do is stave off the progression ...we hope! I think what my DH is on now is not working so well...even friends are telling me he is more forgetful of everything and asking the same questions more often. Yesterday I just hit the wall!
Lori, 10 years? I thought these drugs weren't effective over the long term. We stopped after 4 years. Never could tell any difference. Always a gradual downhill slide. Now only vitamins and Lisinopril for high bp. Not even close to going in the donut hole now.
There is no possible way I could ever have afforded that kind of money for prescriptions or anything else. Sid is on Medicare, but uses my insurance for prescriptions ( I'm not old enough for Medicare - have insurance from my teacher's retirement). I paid $50 for 3 months of Aricept through my insurance. Now I pay $20 for 3 months for the generic aricept.
I agree with Zibby. I don't understand any doctor prescribing Aricept for 10 years! Took my DH off both Aricept and Namenda after about 6 years - which was a year longer than I thought. Saw no significant changes in him.
It is my understanding that because the studies on Aricept were not long term, they cannot claim long term benefits even though the benefits may be there. Our doctor, because of personal experience with his MIL (an acquaintance of ours) is reluctant to take people off of the meds. She had a noticable decline when removed from Aricept and Namenda.
One reason I was considering taking my husband off the Aricept was because of the cost--we hit the donut-hole in June each year. With the new generic price, that is no longer a factor.
They were very cheap, as Lori noted, at our last refill a week or so ago. I had almost dumped the Aricept as Jeff's been declining anyway, but then I got a touch of cold feet/not wanting it to be my fault in any way. I can justify not dumping them with current low price, I guess. But he's been on both Aricept and Namenda for 4.5 years, and I'm sure they're useless. I hate to feel captive to the nebulous threat that "MAYBE they're doing SOMETHING" and the anecdotal horror stories about someone stopping and precipitating a decline.
I just paid $21 for 90 donepezil (generic aricept) tablets. This is 23¢ per tab, but I believe the price is partially due to the generic having moved to a tier in Jeff's Rx (part D, right?) plan that it commands a lower price, with the insurance coverage. I bought them, as usual, at our local (Annapolis, MD area) pharmacy. Last time, several months ago, I got a 90 day supply of the generic when they were first available for a good bit more. I think they may have moved down the tier-level one step at a time or something. I don't pretend to comprehend insurance or drug pricing.
It is through my Massachusetts Teacher's Retirement Pension. It comes with insurance( It's taken out of the pension monthly), which includes prescription drugs. The insurance company used to use Express Scripts for medications, but now they use CVS. I'm buying generic Aricecpt.
We have Federal Blue Cross (CareFirst) & through their mail order prescription service I was paying $70 for a 3 month supply of Aricept, but now I pay $10 for a 3 month supply of Donepezil.
We don't have any RX coverage at all - all out of pocket. When we signed up for supplemental policy last fall I couldn't see the benefit of using Plan D because of penalty we would be charged and the cost from Canada was about the same. I've just found another site that rates the Canadian Pharmacies and I can get them for even less than I am now paying $3/pill. However, I am currently splitting dh's Aricept in half now to avoid diarrhea and this strategy seems to be working very well. He has about 6 months of Aricept left and in the final months I will begin weaning him totally from this drug as I don't see too much of a benefit anymore, and then it will just be Celexa and eventually Seroquel (as far as I know of now, but we all know how that goes).