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Generic Imatinib - Cipla brand, information please

Generic Imatinib. A little help please. England certainly, and I believe the UK have agreed a national contract for Imatinib to be supplied by Cipla of India. Is anyone on this brand already, if so can I have some feedback please on it.


Interested to see how peoples results have been both from a start on Cipla brand, or when changing to it, if you had been on a different Imatinib brand before, and also if side effects seemed any different. Thanks

This might be relevant to this discussion.
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/strengthen-healthca...

 

Romo

Hi, I changed from glivec to a generic brand  but soon changed back to glivec , they made me sick most days , headaches and a few other side effects , x

Hi there Nigel

I am on a generic imatinib supplied by Cipla South Africa, branded and marketed as Imavec here in South Africa.  I'm not sure if this is the same generic that you are asking about, but my experience on it has been quite good.  However, I changed to it from dasatinib.  Here are some points relating to my own experience:

  • I had expected it to be significantly cheaper and although there is quite a saving, it's not as cheap as I had hoped.  My month's supply of Sprycel cost R28 000 (South African rands, roughly equivalent to £1 650) and this Imavec costs R16 000 (around £950).  Here, Gleevec costs around R18 000 (just over £1 000) if I am not mistaken.
  • The first ten days were awful: joint pains, extreme fatigue, muscle cramps, a rash, dry skin, heartburn and fluid retention.  Most seem to have improved quite a lot.  I'm on a diuretic for the fluid retention and take magnesium supplements as well as tonic water for the cramps.  The rash was sorted out with corticosteroids but unfortunately returned once I stopped them.
  • Oddly, I have never experienced any gastro-intestinal effects on this drug.  I take it with or without food and it makes no difference.
  • Before starting, my BCR-Abl level was on 0.042%.  One month later and it is 0.051%.  A small rise but well within the normal range of error for this test.  I'm 30 months since diagnosis.
  • It affected my creatinine levels and my eGFR has dropped to 72 from above 90.

That's really all the feedback I have - I hope that this helps!

Best wishes

Martin