Asthma Apothecary Adventures

Xopenex® Inhaler with Spacer

My daughter and son both have asthma. In the last few years, they have had bouts with bronchitis and pneumonia treated at home and in the hospital caused by asthma triggered by environmental allergies. It has been frightening, expensive and complicated.

Luckily, my kids are both happy kids, mostly healthy. We are fortunate to be able to afford our United HealthCare self-employed insurance for $1,630.47 each month. Even with nearly $20,000.00 each year in insurance payments, the co-pay, deductibles and whatever the amount that we have to pay for the drugs is called exhausts me.

My daughter was using Albuterol as a rescue inhaler. She started having hives after each use. We used Benedryl (Diphenhydramine) to get rid of the hives. So the doctor switched her to Xopenex (Levalbuterol). Online it is described as a reverse isotope of Albuterol. Gladly, the Xopenex seems to open her airways without hives. I hate chasing one drugs side effects with another drug. i know there are times when there just isnt much of an option (like antibiotics) but as a general rule I want us to take as few drugs as possible.

I am trying to be prepared. Some of the medications are not readily available at the pharmacy. With my daughter the time from onset of symptoms to full blown pneumonia has been as little as hours so waiting a day for medication could land us back in the hopsital. The children seem to have the hardest time breathing in March (oak and pine pollen) and October (weed pollen). Today, I tried to enroll in a "Loyalty Club" to reduce our out-of-pocket cost for the medication. After much confusion it seems that the the "Club" has been discontinued. The nurse was sure that the company would not discontinue that unless there was a generic and there is not. It would have paid up to $50 towards the prescription. That would have only left another $50 for me to pay since my Insurance is paying $41. When I looked on the companies website I could only find information about the "Loyalty Club" for the inhaler Xopenex HFA which we do belong to but I could not find anything for the solutions for the nebulizer. I called the number on the card and it said that the program had been discontinued. A representative suggested that I look at http://www.internetdrugcoupons.com/ which indeed has a coupon for Xopenex HFA but none for the nebulizer solution.

Xopenex® HFA Loyalty Club Card

It reminded me of a Discount Prescription Drug Plan card that my friend Dawn got in the mail. I got that card and a few others. I am a little wary of these cards. I don't like that I cannot see who is paying for the websites, the actual printing of the cards, the television ads and the mailings. I am suspicious. My friend's recommendation and I found two additional that allow me to use them without anything from me: www.rxassist.org RxAssist Patient Assistance Program Center Discount Prescription Drug Plan; www.rxrelief.com RxRelief Pharmacy Discount Card; yourrxcard.com Your Rx Card Free Prescription Drug Card.

So next I call pharmacies to get the prices. I never get through to Walmart, it just rang and rang. Walgreens was very helpful but the lowest cost was $153 and I would have to buy a "Walgreens Card" for $20.00. Publix is the lowest price at $100 out-of-pocket.

I went to Publix armed with my cards and prescriptions of all types. The assistant told me that the Discount Prescription Drug Plan cards that I had printed out only help for generic drugs. Of course there is no generic of Xopenex.

When I got home I looked up generic Levalbuterol. It seems the initial patent expired on January 2010 but still there is no generic. The website asthma.emedtv.com/xopenex/generic-xopenex.html says "Sepracor will allow the generic companies to make a generic version of Xopenex 'early' in 2012 or 2013." That would explain why the "Club" has been discontinued. It says this information is from "settlements between Sepracor and generic manufacturers" which looks like litigation and that could explain the delay.