Apoquel - new drug

[Paradis]

Lizzie the cyclosporine that I get is from costco. 180 capsules of the 100mg dose is $504. It is the cyclosporine mod. Vet calls in the script to the pharmacy. That is the same price at all the costcos. Might want to look into that for your boy. Has your vet given you a cost for the apoquel?

[jadasmom.1]

Lizzie,
Your picture of the 4 dogs in the snow is fantastic. I love it, and I don't even like walking in snow.

[Paradis]

Update is Festus will be going on Apoquel this weekend. The vet was able to move on the price to $2.18 a tablet so for $15 more over the span of 4 months than the cyclosporine was so this is doable. Will update once he's on it as he's in the middle of a flare right now.

[briggsdvm]

Off Label Use

Many of the drugs used in veterinary medicine are done so 'off label'. That is to say, they haven't been specifically tested/studied to treat a given condition in a given species. Thankfully there are a few pharmaceutical companies who are willing to invest in R&D to create/study/approve drugs for use in a species. Cost is over $1M/species (and that was 10+ years ago). So when a label says "Approved for use in dogs & cats" vs. "dogs" (only), they have spent a bunch of $.
For those of us who treat non-traditional companion animals (aka "exotics" - birds, reptiles, small mammals..), we literally have almost NO drugs approved for use in those species. We 'borrow' them from the dog/cat/human world and see how it goes.
Apoquel has a label claim (anything printed/claimed on a label has to have been approved by the FDA) for use in dogs only (at this time...maybe in the future they go for another species if enough of a market - $ - is there for them).
Personally, I'm hoping to use it in cats and some birds (self mutilators) because we certainly have many frustrated "itchy" cats/birds...
I've got about two dozen dogs on Apoquel so far and it's amazing...
Definite game changer! Great tool for the Rx box.

[bama86]

It's a miracle drug! SERIOUSLY! Steroids hardly touched Gabby's itch and the this drug make her almost completely stop itch ing. We had to stop the apoquel for a little over a week for allergy testing and can't wait to start it back up tonight! Can't remember what I paid ... $75 but I'm not sure how many pills that was. Hopefully you all have similar results!

[ematlock]

Just had the "lunch and learn" on this today... it sounds awesome! I don't have an itchy dog issue, but it looks a lot safer and more effective then Atopica/pred and a lot cheaper! Atopica is rediculously expensive here - not many use it. And it works really fast! The rep told us they are almost sold out it had such a sucessful start!

[audreys]

Looks like I'm able to get it for $1.74 per.
But I'm having it sent from my old vet in Pa since the vets here are not cooperating.

[bama86]

Looks like it was 2.59 per for me from the specialist vet... Wonder if the regular vet would be cheaper?!

[Paradis]

Such a wide range in price for this med. Now fingers crossed that it works as it says it should work, I'm anxiously awaiting for it to come in, I've ordered it from the clinic. The cyclo just isn't cutting it anymore and poor Festus is having quite the unfortunate flare.

[Paradis]

So 24 hours later and he hasn't itched. I'm quite impressed to say the least and am cautiously optimistic that he continues to do this well on it. All week he was in a bad flare where when he was awake he would itch, and he'd itch in his sleep it was bad. So hopefully this continues to subdue the itch. Will report back after he's been on it for a week.

[Lizzie]

We ordered it, can't get it yet! backordered! oh, so patiently waiting!

[audreys]

We ordered it, can't get it yet! backordered! oh, so patiently waiting!

Same here!

[will]

I just picked up my first bottle this morning. I'll report back on how well it works. My boy is the perfect candidate, let me tell you.

Anyway, here in san diego, they are $2.05 per pill. But, my employee discount got that down to $0.62 per pill -

[Millie03]

In September 2009, Pfizer pleaded guilty to the illegal marketing of the arthritis drug Bextra for uses unapproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and agreed to a $2.3 billion settlement, the largest health care fraud settlement at that time.[7] Pfizer also paid the U.S. government $1.3 billion in criminal fines related to the "off-label" marketing of Bextra, the largest penalty ever rendered for any crime.[8] Called a repeat offender, this was Pfizer's fourth such settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in the previous ten years.[9][10]

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer

or just type Pfizer fined in to Google. You get 192,000 hits.

Zoetis is the agricultural divison of Pfizer. Why would I expect them to do anything differently?

[briggsdvm]

In September 2009, Pfizer pleaded guilty to the illegal marketing of the arthritis drug Bextra for uses unapproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and agreed to a $2.3 billion settlement, the largest health care fraud settlement at that time.[7] Pfizer also paid the U.S. government $1.3 billion in criminal fines related to the "off-label" marketing of Bextra, the largest penalty ever rendered for any crime.[8] Called a repeat offender, this was Pfizer's fourth such settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in the previous ten years.[9][10]

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer

or just type Pfizer fined in to Google. You get 192,000 hits.

Zoetis is the agricultural divison of Pfizer. Why would I expect them to do anything differently?

What is your point? Type Aspirin into Google you get 9,500,000 hits.
Zoetis used to be part of Pfizer until it was spun off as a separate entity a couple years ago. What specifically do you think they are doing? Something with the marketing of Apoquel?