Substitute For Drixoral
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Are any of the meds with same formula as Drixoral available anywhere? (Desihist SA, Dexaphen SA, Dexophed, Disobrom, Disophrol, Dixaphedrine, Drexophed SR, Drixomed, Drixoral, Duomine) Is the effect of Brompheniramine Maleate the same as Dexbrompheniramine Maleate? If so perhaps, Lodrane D-24 will work. Has anyone tried it yet? I'm fighting nausea, popping ears & wheezing while waiting for my pharmacy to get some. I'm so relieved to find I am not alone in only finding relief with Drixoral. Over the years, especially recently, I have tried others, but none do the job. Anyone having success with a substitute?

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Where did you order the Drixoral in Canada from? What is the address?

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Yes, Bromfed DM liquid. Nice butterscotch flavor with no nasty after taste. Same ingredients as Drixoral but not as many mg of them. By RX only but worth it. Using it now and seems to work well.

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I got my drixoral from Canada every year since it was no longer available in the US, but now it has been discontinued in Canada, I have no idea why. I don't know what I will do come allergy season. It is truly a miracle drug. NOTHING else touches my allergies. Sigh.

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I have been looking for drixoral recently, hoping that they had brought it back! Any luck on finding anything for all the itching of eyes and throat and sinus headache?

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Uhhh... It is now December 2014 (SIX YEARS LATER!!!) and there has never been any Drixoral anywhere since, in all that time. "One year", my hiney.

New drug coming out (don't get excited, tho), Dixaphedrine, which I was told was made my the "same mfgr" as original Drixoral, and I'm just starting my quest. It's listed on the Kaiser Formulary (if I understood what I was reading), but I can't figure out if it is Rx or OTC. As you recall, Drixoral was OTC, after originally being prescription only. And we all said we wouldn't mind paying for Rx if we could just get RELIEF.

I suggest everyone Google "dexbrompheniramine/pseudoephedrine" and see what you find. It looks like there are several different Drixoral dupes around that aren't advertising themselves, unfortunately with a bunch of dumb sounding names that don't lend themselves to quickly bring recalled.

Good Luck everyone. I will post back when and if I actually get my hands on anything worth shouting about, as Granny used to say. I only wish I could buy a new product that doesn't give my money to the original manufacturer (Schering-Plough?)

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the Drixoral formulation is now available as LODRANE OTC by ECR Pharmaceuticals,

Ginny Perrin, ECR Pharmaceuticals, PO Box 71600, Richmond, VA 23255

(800) 527-1955 x103, (804) 527-1950 x103, (804) 527-1959 fax

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My second-best alternative is to take 5mg Zyrtec (I break a 10mg in half) before bed along with 60mg pseudoephedrine, then another 5mg Zyrtec midmorning with or without pseudoephedrine in the am or later in the afternoon.
Not as good as Drixoral, but works without the jitters.

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Original Drixoral is available via internet in Canada.

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I spoke with the manufacturer Oct 2011--the company will not put it back into production because of the cost, nothing more. They orig took it from stores because of abuse, but now they have other products to fund.

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I have "plinking" sensation in my head. It's worst upon arising and quits after about half-hour. I noted that when I take Dimetane, this "plinking" stops. Drixoral will do the same thing. With this "plinking" going on at night (at times) it keeps me awake. Will Children's Dimetapp capsules do the same trick??? I am 75-year old male.

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I talked with Schering Plough this week. They will not be resuming production of Drixoral. I have been getting mine from Canada for the past two years, but the last shipment had a note saying that it was no longer made in Canada, but the stuff they were sending from Europe had the same formula. It didn't work for me, and my doctor said that while the active ingredients could be the same, other chemicals in the drug could prevent my system from absorbing them.

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What's most suspicious, is that Sudafed (the original and also the new "PE" kind, which is not supposed to be used by hypertension patients for some reason) is available behind the counter at Target, yet they stopped stocking Drixoral literally overnight, with no announcement. Sudafed, pseudoephedrine...plus Target brand Sudafed, are still available. Does this mean the jcaksas drug cooking bozos really want the Dexbrom-whatcha-callit portion of the product? Better, WHY hasn't another USA Drug company start production of a copycat product. I mean, Safeway used to sell a copycat (read, exact recipe) product, cheaper, and you KNOW it wasn't produced by Shering Plough.

The other thing is, if the problem was that the factory was messed up or suddenly didn't meet inspection protocol, then why-OH-why didn't they sub it out? The M&Ms company coulda produced them in the right shape and size, right? Or maybe whoever makes Advil tablets, or Excedrin for cripes' sake, they could have made them.

No, I truly think the issue is the meth cookers, though again, why would sudafed still be available??? It would seem not worth the effort to try and separate the two components. And finally, why wouldn't they just put it back to Prescription only status so honest mouth breathing allergy sufferers like all of us, could get relief?!

The FDA seems to be making the rules (laws) up as it goes along, not unlike the IRS. It feels like we're still in BUSH country: The LESS information, The BETTER.

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They will probably never produce Drixoral again due to the DEA involvement, I have started using Alavert-D (contains 5 mg. Loratadine (Clariton), and 120 mg. of pseudoephedrine sulfate (better than the HCI version of Sudefed). And I don't have that disconnected feeling, non drowsey, and actually works. Just in time for Spring...drg

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You don't need to find something similar. Contact a Canadian drug company through the internet and order your drixoral. This is legal. I am so happy to have my drixoral again.

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It's now mid-May, over 2 months since teh last posting. Does anyone have an update when Drixoral will be available by SP again in the states? I appreciate all of the previous postings, I too have a situation where Drixoral is the ONLY thing I've found to work for my Vasomotor Rhinitis for over 30 years.

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Drixoral is still available through Canadian Accredited online pharmacies. You can go to americanameds, they still have stock and have no issues with supply from the canadian manufacturer. You can order up to a 60 pill order at one time with the availablity to reorder in 60 days.

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I ended up receiving Disophrol, made in Germany, by Schering-Plough. Same as Drixoral, same mfg., just the foreign name. Cost: 0.60 cents per tablet.

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Thank you, Roy! You're right, the internet is a wonderful tool! I'm so glad somebody saw my post and benefited from it... that's what I was hoping for. :)

I copied and posted it in several different places, hoping to reach as many people as I could.

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Thank you so much Miss M for posting your detailed findings! I suppose this is the true power of the internet today - the sharing of knowledge! But seriously, I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to share this with everyone. Now myself and many others will not feel so left in the dark!

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Well, it's now March 2010, and I just got off the phone with Schering-Plough/Merck again.

The lady I spoke with said that as of Feb. 15, they have no firm date for the return of Drixoral. She assured me that they were going to start making it again in the same formulation. She said their new manufacturing facility is complete, and they are currently waiting for the FDA to do all their approvals.

She had no explanation for the disappearance of all similar drugs from the shelves since then. I have never seen any of them, and CVS couldn't even find Lodrane in their database.

I think I have connected some dots, though. I did some more looking after reading the last post.

Drixoral was made at Actavis Totowa. You may remember the recall of an entire lot of Digitek a while back, which was twice the normal thickness. That was also made at Actavis Totowa. Here is some interesting reading (you only get a paragraph or two without subscribing, but it's enough):

Actavis Totowa nets warning for QC, cleaning validation: http:/­/­www.encyclopedia.com/­doc/­1G1-162103856.html

A Federal lawsuit... charges pharmaceutical company Actavis Totowa with manufacturing and distributing defective Digitek heart drug pills...: http:/­/­www.encyclopedia.com/­doc/­1G1-183812064.html

The US Food and Drug Administration... awaits the court's entry of a permanent injunction that bars Actavis Totowa... from manufacturing and distributing drugs at the firm's Totowa, New Jersey, facilities: http:/­/­www.encyclopedia.com/­doc/­1G1-192079053.html

It appears that Drixoral disappeared from the market without warning because the facility that manufactured it was breaking a large number of required safeguards, and had just released for sale a deathly-defective lot of Digitek. The lawsuit concerning the Digitek was filed in mid-July 2008 -- at the same time the shelves were running dry of Drixoral. As shown by the previous poster, even the Drixoral was recalled.

My last box was from this recall, but I had already taken one or two by the time I read the previous post last year. No ill effects, so I continued to use it until it was gone. I used it only when I was non-functional, so I was able to stretch it out quite a while. This box was bought in July 2008, the last box I could find anywhere. I had another box I had just started, and I began meting them out with an eyedropper. My last box expired in April 2009, but I made them last into December. By the time I took the last two, they were apparently too old, and did not work.

I am now out of it. Buying it from Canada is prohibitively expensive. Chlorpheniramine maleate helps sometimes, but I usually have to take a couple of doses a bit early in order to gain control. Sometimes, like today, it does not help at all.

Now that I have found this information, I understand. If they had told us what was going on in the first place, I think most people could have handled the whole story reasonably well... much better than the way they mostly kept us in the dark (we're moving our manufacturing, supposed to be out again around the start of 2010, no, no more info than that, here, sign up for notification). They would have been able to look like they were trying to protect the public from a manufacturer that refused to bring their facility into compliance, rather than an uncaring, big corporation that capriciously toys with the health of its customers.

I actually called them back and told the lady I got this time what all I had learned, and that I knew she wasn't the one who decided to keep us all in the dark, but that I hoped she could pass this on to whoever ... that most people are reasonable, and could have handled more information better than the tiny amount we've had all this time.

Here's hoping their new facility gets through the FDA soon!

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