Kathie

I'm a regular poster over on the Asia board, and I posted this info there this morning. Someone suggested the people here would be interested as well.

A generic version of Malarone became available last week. My pharmacist says it can be somewhat difficult to get right now.

I filled my prescription for Malarone on Monday and paid the name brand drug copay, $40, Cheryl filled her the next day and paid the generic copay, $10.

If you are going to be getting Malarone for an upcoming trip, you might let your pharmacist know that you are willing to wait a few days for the generic if they don't have it in stock.

sandi

WOW! Ain't Fodor's wonderful. Great news. I believe it's a bit over 10/yrs since Malarone came to market in the States... so timing is about right.

The $40 as copay was good, but $10 (or less) is better. Of course if your insurance covers, but if not... the regular price has got to come down.

Yipee!

Elizabeth_S

Thanks Kathie - will see if it's the same case in Canada. The last few times I've been to our travel doctor he repeats the same joke "the most significant side effect of Malarone is bankruptcy".....ha ha we say every time!

sdb2

This is good news. Can you give us an internet link? I Googled "Generic Malarone" and found no indication of a generic being available. My understanding was that the patent lasted until 2014.

Kathie

Sorry, I don't have a link for this info, just the experience at our pharmacy in Seattle.

Kathie

Here's a brief article that Bing turned up:

http://www.inpharm.com/news/gsk-agre...-deal-malarone

Leely2

Great, thanks for posting this here, Kathie--very much appreciated!

sdb2

Thanks, Kathie! Following your lead I found this pertaining to the launch of the generic:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/0...7KS2KI20110928

Apparently, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals was permitted to start selling in the last quarter of this year.

Femi

Thanks Kathie.

Although I just purchased Malarone for my next trip @ $6/pill(Aaaargh!), this is good news for future trips.

moremiles

Great to know, thanks for posting!

skibumette

Thanks for the heads-up Kathie! Our travel clinic's private (vs. business) travelers will be delighted to know they won't need a 2nd mortgage to purchase their atavaquone/proguanil!

Celia

Thanks, Kathie!

sandi

Come on folks... while Malarone is more expensive than the other options, it's not all that expensive when considering your health... and nowhere near a '2nd mortage.' Considering the costs of one's safari or other holiday destination where these are required, not a bad investment in the scheme of the entirety.

Still - generic is good!

Percy

I called three of my Pharmacy friends and none of them knew or heard about a Generic Malarone...

so Glenmark better get their detail men to start their marketing routine and inform the public.

skibumette

OK, so I exaggerated about the 2nd mortgage - I forgot to include my winking emoticon! But when Malarone costs $8 per pill locally, a generic version will be a very welcome option, especially for non-business travelers whose insurance does not cover malaria prophylaxis.

qwovadis

www.malariahotspots.co.uk

good info for risk areas in Africa

Good that there is going to be a generic Malarone

But I will stick to generic Doxycycline 100 mg $12 for #270

At Walmart... has worked for me for years no reason to change.

The most cost effective of all the preventives for me.

qwovadis

In addition to cost factors there are issues with emerging

Malarone.com resistance in Africa due to overuse/mutation.

Epidemiologic surveillance of emerging resistance to this ... by a non-immune traveller to East Africa. Clin ... Rosário V. Detection of atovaquone and Malarone ® resistance ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1513587.

sdb2

Before people run screaming into the streets over resistance to Malarone I think it's helpful to highlight the conclusions of the paper cited above (which I think should have been mentioned in the post):

"In the studied population, no mutations associated to atovaquone-proguanil treatment failure were found. Prevalence of these mutations in Luanda was estimated to be less than 0.77% with a 99% significance level. Therefore, Malarone® can be recommended for use by travellers to this region with expected high efficacy. This represents an improvement in view of the known prevalence of resistance against other currently used prophylactic antimalarials."

sandi

Even Lariam can cost $8-10 a tablet and it's on generic nowadays. Less, but not by much, if covered under a drug plan. Granted, this med tends to have more side-effects (for some, never with me thankfully), it's not a daily tab, but weekly. Still for a 2/week holiday, you need at minimum 7/tabs.

At least we know Malarone has gone generic, so we keep on top of our pharmacies to obtain if not on-hand.