Friday, February 20, 2009

New info on Zonegran

Ok so I've not looked into this fully but someone just posted this on Myspace stating that she just found out from their Nurse and then confirmed from their Neuro that Zonegran will no longer be manufactured and they will for now on just carry the generic form only called: Zonisamide.

Many Drs know how important it is to use the real deal med for Epilepsy. So why pull the name brand? In this above persons case her son had been on the Generic Form with no seizure relief so they decided to try the actual Zonegran and he became seziure free now she fears the worse when they run out of the name brand! This is horrible!Anyone else heard of this med being pulled?

4 comments:

Reagan Leigh said...

No I haven't heard about that. What I find even more interesting is that the name brand one worked but the generic didn't (I've heard about differences in how well they worked, but never that one stopped the seizures and the other didn't). I don't think Reagan ever even tried the name brand...the pharmacy automatically gave us the generic. I wonder if that might have made a difference??

Jamie said...

we automaticaly got generic as well for Madie...we are on HALF the dose she started...hopefully we are getting her off of that sleepy drug! hmmm I will have to ask about that one...

Jennybell said...

I saw this on a yahoo board and thought I'd share

http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2009/safety09.htm#Zonisamide

Jennybell said...

I was hoping that last comment would come up as a link here's what's in it in case it's the wrong site.


Zonisamide (marketed as Zonegran, and generics)
Audience: Neurological healthcare professionals
[Posted 02/23/2009] FDA notified healthcare professionals that
updated clinical data has determined that treatment with zonisamide,
indicated as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of partial seizures
in adults with epilepsy, can cause metabolic acidosis in some
patients. Patients with predisposing conditions or therapies may be at
greater risk for developing metabolic acidosis and the risk of
zonisamide-induced metabolic acidosis appears to be more frequent and
severe in younger patients. FDA recommends that healthcare
professionals measure serum bicarbonate before starting treatment and
periodically during treatment with zonisamide, even in the absence of
symptoms and is working with the makers of zonisamide to revise the
product labeling to reflect this new safety information. The
notification includes recommendations for healthcare providers,
information for patients, and a data summary.