Red inflamed pimples of acne often improve with antibiotics. Tetracycline products remain most popular with Minocycline and Doxycycline available as relatively inexpensive generic examples. An extended release version of minocycline sold as Solodyn has not been compared to the traditional antibiotics, yet the cash price averages about $1200 a month. So called co-pay savings cards shift the burden to insurance companies. Valeant Pharmaceuticals is currently being investigated for its pricing practices.
Hello i’m dr. ken landau let’s talk about acne and the treatment of acne with an antibiotic now one of the most common types of antibiotics used for acne is something called minocycline minocycline comes in two forms it comes in regular form typically you have to take two a day of those pills at least initially if you have moderate to severe acne or you can take
An extended-release though you only have to take one of those a day well the one a day type the extended-release is known as solidyne solidyne is for moderate to severe acne it’s the red bumps we call them papules and pustules not for the blackheads and whiteheads spin around for a long time and your dose is based on your body weight on the standard minocycline
It’s not based on your body weight so there’s a difference in the milligram pills well if you go and take the solanine that’s the extended-release minocycline if you go and take that every single day for 12 weeks that’s for three months of therapy basically what is the benefit going to be well the mean decrease in the acne mean decrease at the end of three months
If you take the sola dime if you take one of those pills a day the mean decrease in the acne is going to be about 45% versus 30% if you take up the sibo if you look at the treatment success at the end of 12 weeks if you take the solanine it’s going to be about 16 or 17 percent versus about 10 percent if you take a placebo and as a matter of fact whether you take
The one a day extended release or the standard minocycline the results at the end are going to be about the same well the company that makes the solidyne valiant they’ve had a lot of problem lately in the press with the securities and exchange commission there’s a lot of talk about their prices and unreasonable prices from that company well how much does it cost
To take solar dye solidyne costs 37 dollars a for an antibiotic for acne that means that if you take the pill every day for a month and you have to take it three months if you take it every day for a month the costs for just one month of therapy is going to be $1,100 according to good rx comm that’s most of the standard drugstores now valiant says oh my goodness
That might be too much so people might not take it but what we could do is we could give you a copay card so you don’t have to pay any copay and we’ll just stick it all to the insurance company well it’s illegal to do that if you happen to have government type of insurance that means medicare medicaid if you have champions if you have the va tricare can’t do that
So that’s one issue another issue is if you go and get the generic minocycline extended release so not solidyne which is the generic type of that drug how much would it cost well you can get the 45 milligrams pill one pill a day for a month for as low as 62 dollars well that’s important to know because that’s 62 dollars if you take two solidyne you’re already at
$72 if you take the simple minocycline the old-fashioned kind of minocycline actually works exactly the same works just as well the end results the numbers are basically exactly the same but if you take the generic minocycline not the extended-release so now the inconvenience is you have to take two pills today what we find is that if you take the 50 milligram
Pill a month worth of therapy cost somewhere between 15 and 30 dollars for the entire month if you take the hundred milligrams then it might cost you between thirty and sixty dollars a month so the bottom line is if you happen to go and take an antibiotic for acne you want to take the generic type and chances are the good old-fashioned type the regular release the
Immediate release not the extended release that’s the one for your pocketbook and for your insurance company’s pocketbook and that means for next year’s insurance policy premium anyway dr. ken landau thanks for watching you
Transcribed from video
Solodyn By wellnowdoctor
