repercussions from the NECC fiasco

[sabaone]

Because of the tremendous screw-up of the New England Compounding Center a couple of months ago, the state of Minnesota has come down hard on local compounding pharmacies. The place where I last purchased a bimix, for $110.00, now cannot do it for less than $250 because they'd have to send it out for testing for purity; thus, they aren't taking orders for injectables. Anybody know whether this is true for compounding pharmacies you''re using?

Thx

Sabaone

[tomlander]

Hello,

This is my first post. 58 y/o from S.E. Massachusetts and a TRIMIX user for the last two years. Living in Massachusetts and getting TRIMIX from a local one store compound pharmacy makes the NECC very "close to home" for me.

I'm going to switch to Caverject in a few months once my current vials of TRIMIX are used up. 3 reasons for this:

1) The NECC situation has the missus worried. The local compounding pharmacy that I use is a small storefront on a main street, and I can see the pharmacist reconstituting the TRIMIX ingrediates with water and then mixing in the correct proportion. The mixing area/table is definitely not sterile, and probably not even asceptic. This week's news that some of the meningitis survivors in the first round that had "recovered" are now coming down with secondary infections is worrisome. My wife is much more concerned than I am, but the breadth of problems at NECC and the lack of oversight and regulation by Washington or the state authorities here is worrisome.

2) With all due respect to Forum members that have written that TRIMIX doesn't lose potency...that hasn't been my experience. When I get an RX filled, I ask the pharmacy to split the volume between two vials...I keep one in the freezer and another one in the fridge and availale for use. My dosage for a fresh mixture is 0.25cc. 45-90 days later, the effective dosage rises to 0.4-0.5cc. So the correct dosage is hard for me to get right, and I tend to err on the high side rather than risk having to go for a second stick. Priaprism is not a problem and I'm envious of those in the FORUM that have written that a working dose of TRIMIX keeps them going for a couple of hours. My experience has been closer to 30-45 minutes.

3) My RX plan used to charge a $15 co-payment on my TRIMIX, with $15 being the lowest co-pay afforded generic drugs. On my most recent fill, the RX plan (CVS) increased the co-pay to $55, which is the top tier co-pay for any RX. I didn't bother calling up to find out why. But as it stands, I can get 18 (plan calls for maximum of 6 doses/month times 3 for a 90 day supply) syringes of Caverjet for the same price as about the same # of doses of TRIMIX. CVS is shooting themselves in the foot on this one, and I got to believe that 18 syringes of Caverject carries a cost of them of $400-500 vs. 10-20% of that for TRIMIX. So goes the sometimes nonsensical workings of the healthcare system here in the U.S.

So that's my story and take on the NECC situation. My Urologist gave me a couple sample doses of Caverject. I've used one....it burns a bit going in (much more that TRIMIX) and left me sore for a few hours after. But that's the tradeoff I'm willing to bear given the convenience of portability in the Caverject packaging and avoidance of the potency issue with mixing only when ready to use.