I researched the websites of the companies who distribute Stalevo

Caranco has been taken over by Sun Pharma through some stock takeover, and according to the website, Sun Pharma in repackaging the brand name, and giving it a generic name

The other generic Stalevo, Wockhardt is manufactured in India, and as far as Im concerened, is garbage

Thanks Steve for your sleuthing on generics. I don't have the same issues as you as I am in the UK, and I do not take stalevo, but sinemet and entacapone separately. The last I have always had as branded Comtess, which is the same as Comtan, last month I got Wockhardt generic entacapone, which does not seem to be doing the same thing. I am due to pick up a prescription tomorrow, and I will call the pharmacy and see if they will give me my usual as I have a poor response to sinemet without it. It has been a bad month for me too.

Hope you get your stalevo issues sorted out, they really should get their act together with generics and start formulating them with some kind of compatibility with the branded versions, the discrepancies are just too great.

It looks like the UK is heading towards a US style health system, and in this respect we should be lobbying in some way for generics that are more standardised, though I have no idea where any group would start with this. I am sure that there must be other disorders where dosing is crucial that must share our concerns. In the absence of other, better treatments............

Hi Lindy..I take Stalevo 200 mg x 3 daily. 2 1/2 hours apart, at 7:00 am, and take my last dose at noontime, and stay untill about 6:00 pm..If I dont overlap doses I go off..That stuff from Wockhardt gave my dysk inbetweeen doses, as well as unpredicable offs

Sun Pharma has the good stuff

Hi Steve, I have had unpredictable offs too, wearing off faster, and have also noticed that getting out of chairs and turning over have been a big problem. These were well controlled, and don't get me down usually, right now they are a major issue.

My pharmacist she said she would sort it out, got back to me a bit later and said regulations had changed (in the UK) and she would make a loss if she dispensed them. My doctor rewrote the prescription for branded and I get my usual tablets on Monday. So a result in the short term.

The austerity stuff no doubt has something to do with it.

These wockhardt things may be the rock bottom version. Wondering if that is going to be the next thing, that Drs are instructed to prescribe generics only. There are a lot of cheap badly formulated drugs in the world, and a lot of fake ones too, so that is worrying.

If we were informed we would have time perhaps to titrate our meds and adjust according to efficacy. As always patients are the lowest in the chain, and are not consulted when changes that affect them come into play.