<p>Just wondering if this is happening to others. I’ve been taking Celebrex for years for severe arthritis. Just went for a refill and my insurance company ( high end policy through my employer) is refusing to pay. What’s up?</p>
<p>The patent was supposed to be up in 2014 so many insurers thought a generic would be available. Pfizer got it extended to some time in 2015. That’s an extra couple of billion dollars for the company. It’s a very expensive drug since it’s brand name only so the insurance companies are probably just looking at the numbers.</p>
<p>[Should</a> you still take Celebrex?](<a href=“http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/05/should-you-still-take-celebrex/index.htm]Should”>Should you still take Celebrex? - Consumer Reports)</p>
<p>No more effective than Advil or Aleve.</p>
<p>Higher risk of coronary artery disease side effects than Advil or Aleve.</p>
<p>Much more expensive than Advil or Aleve.</p>
<p>I still yearn for Vioxx. Completely off label, but killed my migraines. </p>
<p>Sorry taken off market.</p>
<p>Before I had my hip replacement, I took Celebrex for a short period of time and I can tell you that Aleve and Advil are not even in the ballpark. Maybe that varies from person to person, but I was absolutely pain free on Celebrex with bone on bone arthritis. No matter how much of the other stuff I took, I was in a lot of pain. I was afraid to continue taking it long term because of the heart related problems associated with it. It was clear from my xrays that a hip replacement was my only choice long term anyway.</p>
<p>I’m sure everyone responds differently, but I don’t think the maker of Celebrex even claims that it offers statistically better pain relief than the other NSAIDs. The claim is that Celebrex (and Vioxx before it was yanked) have less risk of irritating the GI tract.</p>
<p>I had bone on bone arthritis but my dr never mentioned those drugs, weren’t they recalled?
I had a knee replacement earlier this year. I took aspirin & tramadol at night.
My lab became very ill after taking deramaxx ( doggy vioxx) although it was not a new drug to her.
Luckily they just had to remove her spleen and she recovered enough to live another two years.</p>
<p>(I don’t have migraines after I began taking niacin for them)</p>
<p>All of these meds can have very different results for different people. Aleve does nothing for me. Advil does nothing for my sister. Both of us have broken out in a rash with at least one other NSAID.</p>
<p>Maybe Vioxx will come back once the molecular medicine folks define who it will and won’t cause problems fir.</p>
<p>It’s true that pain relievers act differently for different people</p>
<p>I respond best to plain old aspirin. </p>
<p>I’m very sorry you are not able to get the pain reliever that works for you. Good luck.</p>
<p>People can respond totally differently to drugs that are even in the same class and supposedly work the same way. So when the doc says “we’ll try a different one and see” go ahead and try it. And unfortunately generics don’t always work as well as the brand even though they are “equivalent”.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the insurance, but I agree that pain meds work differently on different people.
I had an ibuprofen Rx in the 1980s at 1600mg, a very high dose, never the slightest issue. My mother took 800mg for an injury for two days, it took her stomach a month to recover.</p>
<p>Aleve works great for my H. Doesn’t do anything for me. Advil works great for me for things like muscle and joint pain. Take Excedrin migraine or generic for headaches and migraines which works pretty well, but somethings aggravates my stomach. </p>
<p>Everyone is different. Indeed.</p>
<p>You might want to try niacin for your migraines.
[Mayo</a> Clinic](<a href=“http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62470-1/fulltext]Mayo”>http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62470-1/fulltext)</p>
<p>Naproxen. </p>
<p>There is no reason for an insurance company to pay for Celebrex (which is known to increase heart attack risk) until every other generic/over-the-counter option is exhausted.</p>
<p>To quote from the Consumer Reports article:</p>
<p>"While celecoxib may be appropriate for a small number of patients, our reservations about it remain strong. Here’s why:</p>
<p>It’s probably harder on the heart. Although the evidence is mixed, some meta-analyses, which assess the combined data from many clinical trials, have linked celecoxib at higher or more frequent doses to an increased likelihood of heart attack compared with either a placebo or naproxen. Indeed, the government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality now says that naproxen is less likely than other NSAIDs to harm the heart. And the AHA says celecoxib should be used to treat people at risk of heart attack only if other measures have failed. That recommendation is based mainly on the ways that celecoxib acts in the body, which in theory may harm the heart more than other NSAIDs.</p>
<p>It may not be much easier on the gut. An unfortunate effect of all NSAIDs is that they block production of an enzyme that normally protects the lining of the stomach from stomach acid. As a result, all NSAIDs pose an increased risk of gastrointestinal problems. It’s true that celecoxib doesn’t block that enzyme as much as other NSAIDs, and some evidence suggests that it’s less likely than those drugs to cause abdominal pain, indigestion, and nausea. But it’s less clear that the drug reduces the risk of more serious problems, such as gastrointestinal bleeding and perforation.</p>
<p>It’s no more effective. Though some people do respond more to one NSAID over another, there’s no evidence that for the average person Celebrex eases pain or reduces inflammation more effectively than any other related drug. And many people can get adequate relief from the non-NSAID pain reliever acetaminophen (Tylenol and generic). While that drug can cause serious liver damage, especially when taken in high doses or by people who drink heavily or have existing liver disease, it doesn’t pose the same risks as NSAIDs to the heart or gut."</p>
<p>Poetgrl, my brother has had numerous problems (knees, shoulder etc) from injuries. He recently had emailed that after trying all the other meds, that aspirin is the one that worked for him.</p>
<p>I have a feeling that a lot of the people out there on drugs like celebrex have never tried plain old aspirin. Might be worth a try!</p>
<p>I guess I would assume that no one would choose a drug like Celebrex without exhausting other less risky options, but maybe not.</p>
<p>Oh, I think doctors choose the most expensive drug (after being shmoozed by drug reps) all the time. </p>
<p>My doc has an entire walk-in closet full of samples of the most expensive drugs.</p>
<p>Canada pharmacy has Celebrex and a generic alternative. With a recent Supreme Court decision, drug companies can no longer pay generic companies to not deliver their products to the US market. Prices should come down (fingers crossed…).</p>
<p>I wasn’t suggesting that aspirin, which has the same thing in it as willow bark, would work for someone using celebrex, just saying that aspirin is really effective for me.</p>
<p>Again, good luck to the OP.</p>
<p>Did you contact the insurance company or just heard this from the pharmacy? Most insurance companies have Tiers of drugs with different co-pays and rules before payment is approved. Many common non-generic medications require pre-authorizations forms that your physician needs to fill out before insurance will pay. You need to find out whether this is the case and if so have your physician fill out the form (in most cases they are not sent automatically to the physician). There is still the possibility of a denial but if your physician can state you have tried less expensive options and they have not worked it may be approved.</p>