Citalopram / generic Celexa

I'm curious as to whether generic Celexa is even on the market yet?

I can't afford a doctor visit and the brand name price right now, but I really could stand to be on meds at the moment. A friend of mine is also on Celexa and she mailed me what she says is the generic version. Aside from the fact that it's scored, it looks nothing like brand name. It's big and round and doesn't even have the strength number on it. Just says RDY 344 on one side, scored on the other, and it's round, a little larger than plain aspirin. She just dumped them in a Winn-Dixie pharmacy bag and sent them in a casette tape mailer. For all I know, it could be aspirin and I'm not going to take it. She's posted on other message boards that she's taken her friends to the store and bought them herbal remedies that claim to help their problem and hopes that they'll get better based on, if nothing else, the placebo effect. Not to sound paranoid, but she could have pulled the same thing on me - mailed me vitamin C or something but saying it's citalopram.

I've looked online trying to find pictures with no luck. I'm not going to take this unknown pill, but I am curious if the generic is widely available now.

the drug companies always have a "rule" and keep their patent for xxx years.........prozac was 20 years and then the generics came out of the closet. i think celexa has been out about 10 years.....can't you go to a local health clinic that is either county or state? my meds come from the clinic here and the total would be about $400 monthly. the only way i could see this psych doc was to go through the clinic and after i realized the full deal, i was like "oh yes, i can do this".....it's helping out tremendously...good jobs here are very hard to find...pat

Yeah, I was thinking there was a 5-year rule before something could go generic. I read where Celexa just got the go ahead to go generic in February, so I was doubtful that it's widely available. I did see drugstore.com sells it generically now. No pictures anywhere, though, other than Celexa pictures. The football shaped ones.

Celexa has been a godsend for me. I'm not in a crisis or anything right now, just that my thoughts are scattered and I'm having a hard time sleeping because of all the thoughts of this court battle. It's been a year and a half since my last physical or even since I've seen a doctor for anything, or I'd ask my GP if he had any samples to last me a few weeks.

It's out where I live (Canada). It's what I take.

Thanks for the info SS, I'll ask my pharmacy if they have it.

Like I *really* needed to post a topic to ask. I could have just called them anyway.

I live in NJ and have the generic Celexa. So, it is on the market. And my pills are oval, not round.
If that helps ya....

Thanks SJ. I was a little skeptical that these were the real thing. I seriously doubt it's anything that would have hurt me, but I have a feeling she sent me something like vitamins hoping that me thinking they were Celexa would make me better.

My lawyer said we might have to submit to drug and alcohol testing (of which I have no worries because I don't drink or take drugs) so there's no way I'm putting something in my body that I didn't purchase and know what it is.

wi fighter - In Canada, there is generic Celexa (citalopram). All of the different generic companies that have a version look similar in shape and colour as the brand name version; some just have different markings (ie. marked with there brand icon, etc.).

There is another way to save money buying Celexa (as well as the generic) is to buy the 40mg tablets and split them. In Canada, the 20mg tablets and 40mg tablets (both brand and generic) sell for exactly the same price (ie. one 20mg Celexa tablet costs $1.50 and one 40mg Celexa tablet costs $1.50). I know that it sounds weird, but it's true (obviously, drug companies do not advertise this fact, and many pharmacists are not even aware of it). So, just as your doctor to write for the 40mg citalopram, with the directions: "Take 1/2 tablet daily." Do ask your pharmacist if the 20mg and 40mg tablets are the same price, though. Wholesale pricing may differ between Canada and the U.S. (but I doubt it).

Also, another way to save money is to buy a 100 day supply of the drug at a time, if you can afford it, and if your doctor is willing to write for that may tablets at a time. A prescription, at least in Canada, is the cost of the drug plus a dispensing fee; so the more tablets per prescription, the fewer dispensing fees that you have to pay.

One last way to save on a prescription is to buy from a pharmacy that that discounts their dispensing fee. Some large chains will sell their prescriptions using dispensing fees that are lower than the industry standards. Check out places like Costco, or other large chain/grocery stores that also have a pharmacy. Many of these places use their pharmacies as a "loss leader", a way to get you into the door, in order to tempt you to buy other items from the store.

Phone pharmacies in your area and ask what their dispensing fees are. I don't know how dispensing fees are structured in the U.S., but in Canada every province is different. I work in a large chain warehouse-type grocery store in a small town of 3000 people that actually has 5 pharmacies (the town is surrounded by a large farming community). Our dispensing fee is $7.99/Rx (ie. Rx = prescription) across the board, where the other charge dispensing fees approx. $12.95/Rx for drug costs under $50; approx. $19.95/Rx for drug costing from $50 to $149.99; and approx. $25.95/Rx for drug costing over $150. I am not sure of the exact dispensing fees of the other stores, but they are the maximum that the stores can charge according to the fee schedule negotiated between our Pharmacy Association and Blue Cross.

As you can see, if you have no prescription coverage, you can save a lot at a store like the one where I work. For example, a drug that costs $200 for a set amount of tablets would sell at my pharmacy for $207.99, where my competitors charge $225.95. That is a significant savings when you are not being reimbursed by a third party prescription plan.

As you can see, it does pay to shop around. If you do find a cost cutter, I will give you another little suggestion. These places are always extremely busy, so always give the pharmacy a day or two to fill you prescription. If you are going to buy large quantities, give the pharmacy a day or two to get in enough tablets.

Ordering your prescription a week ahead is even better. The pharmacists will really appreciate this, as they can fill your prescription in their slower periods and won't feel rushed. Do make sure that you tell them that you will be giving them a week to fill the prescription, so that they know that they will have plenty of time to order the tablets. Also make sure to tell them that you specifically want 40mg tablets (even if the price of the 40mg tabs are not exactly the same price as the 20mg, they should not cost double the 20mg tabs. This should still save some money, and all that you have to do is break a tablet in half.

I hope that this is of some help. - Cam

CamW, my doctor gives me 30-day supply of 40 mg and I was cutting them in quarters because I was at a point where even 10 mg was helping. The pharmacist didn't like it because he thought halving the half didn't give me an exact 10 mg dose every day, but even my GP agreed with me that I wasn't at a point where maybe getting 9 mg one day and 11 mg the next would be a problem and told the pharmacist so. But, I think for the moment I'd take 20 mg, just to get me over this hump, then I could wean back off.

So I got 4-month supply for $80, pretty good deal, but I just don't have $80 laying around right now, or the $150 for a physical so he'll rewrite the Rx, and I'm using my available credit for a lawyer right now. Credit card spending is one of my downfalls. I'm living so paycheck to paycheck right now, that just about anything could qualify as an emergency if it's more than gas, groceries, and a couple of movie rentals. Really, I should consider mental healthcare an emergency, but I need the credit available for the lawyer in order to get some child support that I waived the first time around. Kind of a catch-22, eh?

Dispensing fees is why the doc gives me a dose I can split because there isn't a huge difference in strength price, but I swear they charge you the same whether you're getting 1 pill or 30. That's good that they let them prescribe half a pill now. I think before they couldn't do that since they make 20 mg. If you needed 20 mg, you HAD to write 20 mg, not 40 mg and tell you to take half.

I "should" call the pharmacy and ask them if they have generic and what the price is. I "should" call my doctor and ask if he has any samples and if he could waive the yearly physical requirement just this once. But "should" doesn't mean I will.