justin_968
Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 7
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 Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 7:04 am Post subject: Generic ambient availability |
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Hello all, does anyone happen to know a ballpark figure for when ambien is going to be available in generic form aka zolpidem ?
My pharmacist mentioned to me in passing that it should be available soon. I didn't ask him anything further on it, as he was very busy at the time, and I was so happy about the good news I lost my train of thought.
Ambien has been a godsend for me as I work a crazy night shift at a very stressful job, and ambien helps me get a good quality sleep, and wake up refreshed and not groggy. I have been prescribed it for about two years now, at one 10mg pill a day. I know that it is supposed to be for short term, but to me the benefits far outweigh the risk, and my doctor doesn't seem to be too concerned, rightly thinking that good sleep is very important for good health. On the few occasions I had to go without it, the only noticeable "withdrawal" symptom I noticed was that I had a very hard time going to sleep, nothing like the withdrawals of opiates (which I have experienced) and is not near as horrible as the stories that I hear about benzo withdrawal (never experienced personally)
On to the money, I hope and pray that the generic zolpidem is much less expensive. I have to pay 35.00 for a script through my insurance whether I get 14 pills or 30 pills. This is another problem I have. My insurance company only wants to pay for 14 pills a month (they claim that the reason for this is that ambien should not be taken for more than 14 days in a row, and it's true, ambiens web-site does state this ), but my doctor prescribes me 30 a month. And the only way that I can get the insurance to cover the whole 30 is when my doctor is kind enough to fax a physicals approval report to the insurance company stating that I need 30 pills a month. They ask for this every three months or so. On the few times that I did not get the p.a. report for the pharmacy, I got the first 14 on the insurance (35.00), and the second 14 I paid cash for, and they averaged around 6.00 to 8.00 dollars a pill !! wow. I also tried to switch to the new ambien cr, because it is approved for long term use (even says so on ambiens site), and they still only would pay for 14.And we had our pharmacist call the insurance company, and explain to them that ambien cr is a different medicine (at least delivered to the body differently, it's still zolpidem )than regular ambien, and that it was approved for long term use, and therefore should be no problem to cover the whole prescription of thirty, but of course they didn't listen. I know a couple of people that switched over to ambien cr, and their insurance company paid for all 30 no questions asked.
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