I take R-Tanna (a generic form of Rynatan). It is an anti-histamine and has done great things for me. I use a C-PAP machine at night to sleep and even the slightest runny nose is extremely annoying. I asked the doctor to prescribe something to help and Rynatan was his solution. I have used it for a little over a year now and been quite happy with it.
So, I went in to my local supermarket pharmacy to have the prescription refilled. The pharmacist told me that the government forced the manufacturer to stop making the stuff. She said that in October, the FDA purged many prescription medicines because the manufacturers hadn’t completed the proper paperwork to legally sell it. The maker of R-Tanna thought it would be better simply to discontinue the product rather than go through the expense of getting into compliance.
This does not make sense to me.
Both R-Tanna and Rynatan seem to be available on line. I can find no information saying that the product has been discontinued or that the government pursued any sort of action against it.
Can anyone out there shed some light on this? Is my pharmacist full of it, so to speak?
I just googled Rynatan and it appears to be a combination of chlorpheniramine (an antihistamine) and phenylephrine (a decongestant).
Both of these are available OTC - e.g. Sudafed PE (phenylephrine) and various antihistamine products containing chlorpheniramine. It’s possible that the prescription-strength dosage is not as easy to find, or maybe the combination is prescription-only?
What the pharmacist said isn’t that implausible: if the government imposes new rules for prescription meds (rather than just grandfathering them in because they seemed to be somewhat effective and hadn’t killed too many people), no company in their right mind is going to spend a lot getting something vetted, when the ingredients are so widely and cheaply available otherwise.
However: I do see that Drugstore.com has this, so I have a hard time understanding why your pharmacist told yo uwhat he did.
My suggestions: either get the ingredients via OTC medications, and/or check with another pharmacy.
The FDA did have a ruling on some drugs that matches what you describe. It’s for older drugs that didn’t face more modern scrutiny about their safety and effectiveness. There was an uproar last yearabout one drug that had been available cheaply for years suddenly losing approval and then being sold for a much higher price.
So your pharmacist was probably right. It’s called the Unapproved Drugs Initiative and has been around since 2006.
The active ingredients for Rynatan are phenylephrine tannate and chlorpheniramine tannate.
This and this are two warning letters that FDA sent to manufacturers of Rynatan formulations. They’re not easy to read, but FDA is saying “you’re selling this stuff, it is considered to be a drug, and this drug hasn’t been approved by FDA.” The exact wording is “**ased on our information, there are no FDA-approved applications on file for these drug products.”
If they want to manufacture and sell it, they have to go through the lengthy and expensive approval process.
Sure, you can still buy it online, especially if FDA doesn’t have legal jurisdiction.
I believe that your pharmacist was telling you the truth.
Why did RiteAid tell me that they stopped making midrin back in 1997 … they did not discontinue manufacture until 2009. I just shifted to CVS and they had no trouble getting it up until 2009 [by which time I had been switched to frova]. CVS told me that [back then] there was no shortage at all, and that RiteAid was just being lazy and didn’t want to keep it on hand [other forms of migraine meds were being pushed by doctors and that RA decided to just jump on the imitrex/tryptan bandwagon. Which if you get stress related migraines are not hte best solution. Don’t you just love medication fads?]
Yup, my generic colchicine went from a nice tiny price [a 1 year supply for me - roughly 180 doses] went from something like $8 for the whole bottle to $4.50 per dose. Yay.
Thank Ghu that mrAru was the full 20 years in the Navy so I get medical care basically until I drop dead in about 15 or so years, between the diabetes, the heart condition and the pseudogout, I couldn’t get medical insurance on a freaking bet. At least I can get most of my meds free as long as I go to the base hospital for them. With aptiva running $25 a dose, I would be fucked.