Question About Actos

[wkilpatrick]

I am new to the boards and was recently diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. My 1st fasting blood sugar was 321. My A1C was 14. I know, really bad. My doctor has since put me on Metformin 500mg 4 times a day along with Actos 45mg 1 time a day. I am also on Toporol XL 100mg 2 x a day. My question is even with my insurance paying, Actos is costly me about $38/mth. Is there a different medicine I could take that would be cheaper and yet still work like Actos? I am going to ask my doctor when I go back for my monthly visit.

[Coravh]

The other source you might want to use is your pharmacist. He/she would know even better than the doc what is less expensive but also effective.

Good luck.

Cora

[A3wxOX0]

I believe that Actos is a Thiazolidinedione and does the same job that Avandia does, but as far as I know those are the only 2 in that class. The downside to both is that the patents were extended and don't run out until 2011 so there is no generic available and wont be one for a while. One thing you might want to do is shop around for a better price. It's quite amazing the price differences you can find. CVS seems to be by far the highest for any medication I've looked into, sometimes by as much as $30 in the retail price. Have a look at the Actos website as well, most brand name medication has some sort of money off or free trial type thing.