20th May 2004
Hey Ken, MellenKrodt is both a pharmacuetical wholesaler, meaning they produce bulk meth , bulk morphine, and other bulk active ingredients for sale to other manufacturers that produce pills for retail sale. Mellenkrodt also has a retail division with a huge generic line where they produce and compound their bulk drugs into pills for retail sale. The generic methadone pill that Mellenkrodt produces for sale is called Methadose. Methadose is not a name brand drug. It's a generic equivelent to Dolophine.
It's no different than a company using a trade name like Roxicet for Percocet. Dolophine is the name brand methadone that generics are supposed to be equivelent to. Because Roxane makes the name brand Dolophine, their generic line is much closer as far as any variation of the amount of active ingredient. It would be hard to explain why 4 10 mg generic Roxane meth tabs didn't provide the same relief as 1 40mg Dolophine diskette since they all come from the same company.
The name can be different as long as it has the correct amount of active ingredient to be considered a generic equivelent is in the tablet, capsule or liquid. If the doc writes a script for Percocet and checks generic, You may get Roxicet, Endocet, or something without a trade name like
Oxy 5/325.
Mellenkrodt is the only bulk producer of methadone in the country, so they sell bulk Methadone HCL to Roxanne to compound into their generic 5mg and 10mg methadone tablets and the name brand Dolophine diskettes. But all the meth in the US comes from Mellenkrodt and is then compounded and marketed by other manufacturers
The difference is that the FDA allows a certain percentage of variation in the amount of active ingredient and still calls it equivelent. After going through withdrawal the first time I had to accept the Methadose tablets from the pharmacy, I had my brother who was Qualtity control for Bayer's special blood products annalyze a Methadose tablet. It came back at 8.2 mgs of methadone HCL. Within the FDA's allowable guidelines to still be labeled a 10mg tablet.
The guidlines allow a +15% or -20% variation in active ingredient and still allows the maufacturer to call it a generic equivelent. So any 10mg tablet of any drug could contain betwen 8.0 mgs of active ingredient and 11.5 mgs of active ingredient. This is why cardiologist don't allow their patients to take generics of certain medications. Because they know they are not all created equal.
If your dose is low, loosing a few mgs isn't going to cause a huge problem. But my dose is 150 mgs a day. If I use the Mellenkrodt Methadose I would only get 123 mgs of methadone per day. If Roxane is on the high side of 10 mgs the gap between both products could be as much as 35%. More than enough to cause someone to experience withdrawal.
If you stick with one product, and Roxxane is hard to stick with because amazingly, the only bulk producer of meth in the country has managed to capture 90% of the entire meth retail market.
Hmm. Sounds like a monopoly to me. Slow distribution of bulk meth to your competitors and the company that relies on Mellenkrodt for raw material can no longer fulfill their obligations to the retailers , so retailers change vendors to ensure a constant supply of methadone tablets, whether they are called methadose or methadone. Mellenkrodt can certainly gaurentee on hand quantities when they are the only producer of meth in the country.
The descision to put 8.2 mgs or 10 mgs into each pill is still up to the manufacturer of each tablet as long as they stay within the variations that the FDA allows. Meth is dirt cheap but if you can get an extra pill out of every 50 mgs of meth that's a 20% increase in product using the same amount of raw material.
I went through the same withdrawal a few months ago when I couldn't find anyone with the quantity of Roxane meth I needed. Fortuantely a mom and pop took the mellencrap back and replaced it with Roxxane methadone. Did all that make sense Ken?
If you start with Methadose, just stick with it and you won't notice a difference, because you will have had nothing to compare it too. Personally I would recomend using the Roxanne but there is no gaurentee you will be able to find a constant supply, and going through withdrawal every other month just isn't worth it.
Take care, Dave
It's no different than a company using a trade name like Roxicet for Percocet. Dolophine is the name brand methadone that generics are supposed to be equivelent to. Because Roxane makes the name brand Dolophine, their generic line is much closer as far as any variation of the amount of active ingredient. It would be hard to explain why 4 10 mg generic Roxane meth tabs didn't provide the same relief as 1 40mg Dolophine diskette since they all come from the same company.
The name can be different as long as it has the correct amount of active ingredient to be considered a generic equivelent is in the tablet, capsule or liquid. If the doc writes a script for Percocet and checks generic, You may get Roxicet, Endocet, or something without a trade name like
Oxy 5/325.
Mellenkrodt is the only bulk producer of methadone in the country, so they sell bulk Methadone HCL to Roxanne to compound into their generic 5mg and 10mg methadone tablets and the name brand Dolophine diskettes. But all the meth in the US comes from Mellenkrodt and is then compounded and marketed by other manufacturers
The difference is that the FDA allows a certain percentage of variation in the amount of active ingredient and still calls it equivelent. After going through withdrawal the first time I had to accept the Methadose tablets from the pharmacy, I had my brother who was Qualtity control for Bayer's special blood products annalyze a Methadose tablet. It came back at 8.2 mgs of methadone HCL. Within the FDA's allowable guidelines to still be labeled a 10mg tablet.
The guidlines allow a +15% or -20% variation in active ingredient and still allows the maufacturer to call it a generic equivelent. So any 10mg tablet of any drug could contain betwen 8.0 mgs of active ingredient and 11.5 mgs of active ingredient. This is why cardiologist don't allow their patients to take generics of certain medications. Because they know they are not all created equal.
If your dose is low, loosing a few mgs isn't going to cause a huge problem. But my dose is 150 mgs a day. If I use the Mellenkrodt Methadose I would only get 123 mgs of methadone per day. If Roxane is on the high side of 10 mgs the gap between both products could be as much as 35%. More than enough to cause someone to experience withdrawal.
If you stick with one product, and Roxxane is hard to stick with because amazingly, the only bulk producer of meth in the country has managed to capture 90% of the entire meth retail market.
Hmm. Sounds like a monopoly to me. Slow distribution of bulk meth to your competitors and the company that relies on Mellenkrodt for raw material can no longer fulfill their obligations to the retailers , so retailers change vendors to ensure a constant supply of methadone tablets, whether they are called methadose or methadone. Mellenkrodt can certainly gaurentee on hand quantities when they are the only producer of meth in the country.
The descision to put 8.2 mgs or 10 mgs into each pill is still up to the manufacturer of each tablet as long as they stay within the variations that the FDA allows. Meth is dirt cheap but if you can get an extra pill out of every 50 mgs of meth that's a 20% increase in product using the same amount of raw material.
I went through the same withdrawal a few months ago when I couldn't find anyone with the quantity of Roxane meth I needed. Fortuantely a mom and pop took the mellencrap back and replaced it with Roxxane methadone. Did all that make sense Ken?
If you start with Methadose, just stick with it and you won't notice a difference, because you will have had nothing to compare it too. Personally I would recomend using the Roxanne but there is no gaurentee you will be able to find a constant supply, and going through withdrawal every other month just isn't worth it.
Take care, Dave