Saturn or Geebs - do you know much about...

[tnf]

..the different fillers that different companies use in their medications?

For example - and no, this is not a junkie/druggie topic - but am on prescription for up to 6 hydrocodone 10/325 tablets a day right now for my recurrent kidney stones. The pharmacy I use switched from tablets supplied by a manufacturer named Watson to one named Mallinckrodt, and I can really tell a difference in the effectiveness of the tablets for relieving severe kidney/ureter pain. The Mallinckrodts don't seem to work well at all, to be honest. I've been on and off that kind of shit again and again with the neck and kidney stones, so I am pretty aware of what to expect in terms of pain relief from them.

I did some looking online (which is tough, because when you search for that shit in google all you find are ads for "GET VICODIN WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION!) and saw that a few other people had the same complaint (although, I am a bit leery about that, because most are probably junkies who are just bummed that they are not getting the same buzz.) In any case, if two companies are offering the same medication, does the composition of the fillers/binders in the pills have to be the same? And, do you think differences in those fillers/binders could result in one brand being more or less effective than another?

[Coreiel]

yes there difference cant affect the speed they work.

for instance (i am aware this isnt exactly the same but still) if i take liquid tylenol it works faster, different filler int hem than the white chalk tablets.

this was most likely no help.

[Geebs]

I'm a doctor Jim, not a pharmacist!

Yeah, it probably would make a difference - after all modified release preparations work by binding the drug differently. Beyond that I don't know.

[saturn]

grind those pills, make a solution with saline and inject it directly into your veins. j/k, don't do that

i dunno much about hydrocone since we hardly use it in holland.

If the drugcoating is different and the lipophilic/hydrophilic properties have changed, speed and amount of absorption in your intestinal tract are different of course.

Once it enters the bloodstream there shouldn't have changed much in terms of bioavailibity (first pass effect through the liver) and distribution in the body's compartments. But that also depends on the changes they made in lipophilic/hydrophilic properties of the drug itself.

Sometimes when you use other drugs you can get interactions. Changes in liver enzymes, availibity of carrierproteins, etc. (too much to tell on pharmacokinetics/dynamics)