Lysodren at $14.00 a tablet, 3 times a week - precious girl has passed

[sawmill0230]

Our ten year young Lab has Cushings. We have her on Lysodren on a MWF schedule for her meds.

Basically three tablets a week. We started her last year and were paying $5.00 a tablet at Sam's Club which no longer carries it. Since Bristol Meyers Squibb "divested" themselves of the Lysodren drug to another pharma company we can only buy it from Direct Success and are now paying $14.00 a tablet. Does anyone have a recommendation or have you been able to get it or a generic cheaper from somewhere else? At $43.00 a week for her meds, it is starting to add up quick. Thanks for anyone's help.

[labblab]

Hello and welcome! Unfortunately, it seems as though Direct Success is currently the only U.S. source for brand name Lysodren. One of our staffers, Leslie, wrote about this last fall when the price per pill was $7; sadly, it sounds as though that price has now doubled. I’ll give you the link to Leslie’s post, however, because in it she discusses a less expensive alternative that may be an option for you to discuss with your vet — compounded mitotane (the active chemical ingredient in Lysodren). Here’s the link:

https://www.k9cushings.com/forum/showthread.php?9111-Lysodren-shortage

Good luck!
Marianne

[Katy1]

Sorry Everyone, I just had to jump in on this one. I buy my Lysodren from Chewy.com and the first time I ordered, it was 30 tablets for a little over 8$ per tablet. Their price is now up to 12.18 per tablet. This is for a 500mg tab.

They transferred my call to the pharmacy and I asked where they obtained their Lysodren and was told the Bristol Meyers Squibb plant in Italy. That didn’t bother me as much as this sudden price increase within a month.

I do watch the market (CNBC) and know that Bristol Meyers was either recently bought out or they bought out another company. The pharmacist at chewy confirmed this information for me but didn’t have any details.

To you with your lab, I’m sincerely sorry you are having to deal with this disease in your pup. I have a 10 year old miniature schnauzer who is currently on 250mg of Lysodren twice a week and is doing ok so far. She had to have emergency gallbladder removal surgery a week ago and she is also diabetic. I was very worried about giving her the Lysodren post surgery but she has been a super trooper with no ill effects in spite of all the extra meds she is on right now.

Leslie on this forum is our Lysodren expert and is a wealth of information. When I read the post, I just had to do my own research for myself as well.

If buying your drugs from a US based company is important for you, I can’t be of much help right now.

The most important thing for you to remember is that everyone here on this forum is here for you and your precious pup—through the good times and not so good. I’m just newbie here myself, but these wonderful people scooped me up in their arms and have not let go. Be well and blessings to you and your pup. Karen

[labblab]

Karen, it’s great that you jumped in. Your reply got me to do a little more digging myself, and there are some unanswered questions here. First, it appears that there remain multiple sources of less expensive Lysodren. Online, I found Petco, VetRx Direct, and Allivet all listing prices per tablet of $8 or less. Also, the GoodRx site listed multiple instore pharmacies in my area with pricing that equals around $6 per tablet when using GoodRx’s coupon (GoodRx.com is a great resource for discounted human meds, as well).

Leslie had written last fall that we could expect to see Bristol Myers Squibb product available for a while, until existing supplies ran out. So perhaps these are still pre-existing stockpiles. However, BMS’s U.S. website, current to today, still lists Lysodren as being under their manufacture:

https://www.bms.com/patient-and-caregivers/our-medicines.html

So now I’m totally puzzled, and wonder whether the planned divestiture of Lysodren to HRA Pharma fell through, and BMS has perhaps retained rights to the product after all and are continuing to manufacture it in their Italian plant. I guess the best way to find out is to go straight to the horse’s mouth, so later today, I’ll try to give BMS a call and see what I can find out ;-).

So stay tuned...

[Katy1]

Hey Marianne......thanks for doing the deeper digging for me..for all of us! I’m so tired and don’t even want to get out of bed but I know I have to—-my little baby Annie needs me and I have to give her the dreaded Lysodren today along with two antibiotics and the “whatever “ drug I can’t ever remember. Check your personal messages whenever you have time —maybe it will give you a nostalgic smile. Blessings,Karen

.

[labblab]

Well, I already got through to BMS, and they confirmed the divestiture of Lysodren to HRA Pharma. So any bottles marked BMS are just holdovers from previous manufacturing runs, and whether or not the cheaper pricing that I saw online this morning will remain indefinitely, I don’t know. But at least for the moment, there still appear to be cheaper pricing options available if you hunt them out.

[sawmill0230]

I called Bristol Meyers Squibb directly when I could not get it at Sam's Club or Walgreens and was given a contact at Direct Success. BMS stated they had divested themselves, also know as selling the drug off to a pirate. At first my cost went from $5.00 per pill to $7.00 per pill and most recently to $14.00 a pill. When I called Direct Success about the price increase, they stated that the manufacturers, which is Direct Success, had a new "pricing schedule". Then he stated shipping was free!!!! At $420.00 for 30 pills, they should come to my house and administer the drug to my dog three days a week.

I am not sure where these online suppliers such as chewy.com are getting Lysodren from unless it is old stock at the old "pricing schedule". If anyone knows a more economical place to obtain the drug, let me know. I do not care where I can buy it from as long as it is affordable.

[labblab]

Yes, I suspect the lower prices are associated with hold-overs from the BMS manufacturing runs. However, I guess you might as well take advantage of the pricing for as long as possible. If you just Google “Lysodren,” pharmacy options will come up for you. You do need to be very careful about purchasing meds off the internet, but all the specific internet pharmacies we’ve discussed today hold certification as “Safe Sites” through the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, an interstate professional organization. This link tells you more about the certification, and shows you how verified pharmacy websites can be identified:

https://safe.pharmacy/

Of course, you don’t want to buy any medication that’s older than its effective date, so you might want to check with any pharmacy that you might order from, to make sure that any hold-over BMS product is still in date.

[Squirt's Mom]

Hi and welcome to K9Cushing's!

Check out Diamondback Drugs. They are a compounding pharmacy which means they make dose sizes that are not offered by the manufacturers. Since Lyso only comes in 500mg doses they could make your baby a 495mg or 505mg dose for example that may be cheap enough to be worth the dose change. If memory serves they can compound doses 2mg either side (+ or -) of the available dose from the manufacturer. Here is a link where you can get a quote from them. Of course, you would have to get your baby's vet to submit a prescription for the new dose but hopefully they will be willing to help you out.

https://www.diamondbackdrugs.com/get-a-quote/

Hugs,
Leslie

[sawmill0230]

Our 10 year old lab was diagnosed with cushing disease when she was nine. We managed with Lysodren for her first year. Our vet kept pushing us to have the surgery to provide her a better quality of life although I thought she was managing ok. Spoiler alert - our dog had to be euthanized 4 days post surgery.

We found a local vet, not our regular vet, that had experience with adrenalectomy surgery. We did an consultation and he stated she appeared to be a good candidate for surgery. The vet did blood work that he said indicated nothing that concerned him and the next step was an ultrasound. That indicated one adrenal was enlarged and need to be removed. Still he indicated she was a good candidate for surgery so we scheduled it.

Our dog was supposed to come home the day after surgery but the vet decided to keep her another day as she was slow to recover. Two days after surgery we picked her up. She would not eat and drank very little, they said she was depressed. Warning - when a vet tells you your dog, that would eat cat poop, is not eating because she is depressed, they are not telling you the truth. Our dog seemed confused and not all there. She did recognize the car and we took her home. She was not active and drank very little and would eat nothing even though we gave her a buffet of her favorite foods. Two days later, on a Sunday, we contacted the vet's office where she had surgery, the answering service stated they were not open and we should find a vet open on Sunday. We finally found a vet on a Sunday morning and they did some test and said to take her immediately to a 24 hour animal hospital about 45 minutes away. We took her to the animal hospital and after waiting a couple of hours, got her admitted. During all this time our dog was very lethargic. The vet at the animal hospital reviewed all the test results and stated her condition was guarded. Definition of guarded condition - very little to no hope of improvement. We checked in several times on Sunday and her condition did not improve.

The next day, Monday, we contacted the vet that did the surgery and he contacted the animal hospital. Back and forth it went until Monday afternoon when we contacted him and he stated it was "futile" to continue treatment at the animal hospital. The word, "Futile", rang in my ears like a gun shot. How did it go from our dog being a good candidate for surgery to futile try to keep her alive?

The worst was yet to come. We made arrangements with the animal hospital to euthanize her Monday evening. We arrived and were put in a small room off of the main area. We waited in silence for what seemed like an hour. Two techs and a vet finally wheeled her in on a gurney, she could not walk. She did not recognize us and never raised her head to look. She was spasming and had trouble breathing. It was heartbreaking. I kept thinking, what have we done, what have we done. I remember saying I was so sorry to her. Finally I could not take seeing her in this condition and called for the vet to put her down.

So to all of you who are considering surgery for your beloved dog that has cushings disease, let this be a cautionary note that not all end well. Ours ended horrifically. It has been three months now and it still brings tears to my eyes to remember her like that.

[Harley PoMMom]

I am so terribly sorry for the loss of your precious girl and my heart goes out to you and your family at this most difficult time. Please know we are here for you, and if you would want to share more about your sweet girl, it will be our privilege to listen. We hope it may bring you some comfort to know that your girl will always be honored here, amongst her K9C family.

With Heartfelt Sympathy,
Lori

[Joan2517]

Oh how awful, and so, so heartbreaking...I am so sorry for your loss.

[Squirt's Mom]

I am so so sorry to hear about your precious baby girl. She left this life knowing she was deeply loved, of that there is no doubt. In time the memories you hold will bring fewer tears and more smiles but today the pain is all you know and we understand that only too well. Please feel free to talk any time you feel the need; we are more than willing to listen and comfort if we can.

My deepest sympathies,
Leslie




Life's Eternal Song

I hold you 'till Life's Breath is gone
I cry for all I'm worth
Even though I know we share a memory
Of you and I on Earth.

As I sit upon the windowsill
Looking out into the rain
There's still a brightness in the sky
That clears away the pain

As I look into the Heavens
I feel that you are gone
But I know that you are there with God
Singing Life's Eternal Song

-By: Rachel Schlow, age 10

[labblab]

I am so deeply sorry for the loss of your precious girl, and especially in such a devastating way. I’m also sorry to be so late in writing to you, but somehow your post had escaped me until now. On behalf of our entire K9C family, I want to thank you for being willing to re-experience your pain in order to tell us what happened. Your warning is one that must be taken seriously. Adrenalectomy is indeed risky surgery and the more highly skilled the surgeon, the better. Regardless, risks always remain, and we are so sorry for your tragic loss.

If you should ever return to us here, it would be our privilege to add your girl to our special memorial thread of honor: https://www.k9cushings.com/forum/showthread.php?9161-Remembering-All-Who-Have-Left-Us-(2019). If you choose to tell us her name and her date of passing, we’ll take care of the rest. We’d also be honored to add a photo link of you’d care to share one. Please know that we’ll always welcome you back at any time if it would be a comfort to you in any way to share stories about better days together with your girl, or just to tell us how you’re doing now.

Always in loving memory of your dear companion,
Marianne