By popular demand: Cheaper medicines for the heart
Of all the articles I’ve written for the STAR, the one that’s had the most requests and the most questions is “The cheapest medicine for high blood pressure.”
Many readers wanted me to explain more about this cheap and effective drug. Many have tried it and thanked me for sharing with them such a cheap drug that saved them thousands of pesos yearly.
Hytaz: Cheap BUT effective
The best bargain for your high blood pressure meds is called hydrochlorothiazide or HCTZ for short (brand name Hytaz from Unilab-Therapharma). It’s only P5.85 per tablet. With a 20-percent senior citizen discount, this goes down to P4.80 per day. But that’s not all, some patients only need to take half a tablet per day. So their daily budget for medicines will only be P2.40 a day!
It belongs to the family of thiazide diuretics. In layman’s term, diuretics are the so-called water pills, which act by decreasing the fluid and salt in one’s body, thereby reducing your blood pressure.
Diurectics like Hytaz have been endorsed for decades by the American-based Joint National Committee (JNC) as effective and safe. In fact, there are hundreds of evidence-based scientific studies showing that the thiazide diuretics are effective in reducing blood pressure and its complications.
The average cost for a high blood pressure drug is between P40 and P60 per day. And since these are maintenance drugs, the patient would spend an average of P18,250 yearly. If we can change this one drug to a cheaper one like HCTZ for only P5 a day, then they would only spend P1,825 yearly. Total savings amount to a whooping P16,425 every year!
ALLHAT: A Megatrial in Hypertension Drugs
Historically, this was said to be the largest trial of all time (with a world-record number of 42,418 patients recruited), pitting two powerful medicines for high blood pressure. On the one hand, we had the underdog class of diuretics (represented by chlorthalidone, in the same family as HCTZ) versus the champion drug amlodipine.
This megastudy took eight years to finish and the final results were released in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association in 2002. The unexpected results show that the diuretics (like HCTZ) fought the champion (amlodipine) to a draw and held their own in terms of lowering blood pressure, preventing heart attacks, and saving lives. Conclusion: The cheap diuretic drugs are as good as the more expensive drug.
Therefore, researchers of ALLHAT had no choice but to conclude that doctors should prescribe thiazide-type diuretics (like HCTZ) as the first-line treatment for high blood pressure.
But what is sad is that many doctors and patients do not know of this major trial and are still taking the expensive drugs for high blood pressure. (Please check out ALLHAT’s patient-friendly website at http://allhat.sph.uth.tmc.edu.
Is Hytaz as good as the expensive drugs?
The real honest answer is,“It depends.” If the patient is diabetic, then ace-inhibitors (drugs ending with the syllable “ñpril”) are the best drugs. But you may add HCTZ if the blood pressure is uncontrolled.
Do I really believe that HCTZ is as good as the popular drugs like telmisartan? The honest answer is that maybe those super-expensive drugs are a little bit better than HCTZ. Maybe. However, if we compare the price difference of about 10 times more, I believe the cheaper HCTZ is good enough for most cases. Consult your doctor.
Who can take Hytaz?
Elderly individuals and those on a high-salt diet will benefit from HCTZ. Those who are already taking one medicine for high blood pressure and yet still have uncontrolled BP will benefit by adding Hytaz. But the greatest benefit is if you are cash-strapped and already bleeding from the prices of medicines. I would also advise patients to take the lower dose of Hytaz at 12.5 mg daily to prevent losing too much potassium. Also to be safe, you may take one to two bananas daily. Bananas are healthy and good for the stomach, too.
Hytaz as a Non-profit Item
I wish our doctors would learn how to prescribe this wonderful and lifesaving drug. Your patients will be very thankful. I recently talked with Therapharma’s general manager John Dumpit and he said that they practically have no profit for Hytaz. Dumpit just shrugged his shoulders and said, “We consider Hytaz to be a service item. Just our company’s goodwill to our people.”
How I wish all drug companies would at least have one non-profit item like Hytaz! Thank you, Therapharma, John Dumpit, and Wenchie Keyser for donating 80 big boxes of Hytaz (for a total of 30,000 Hytaz tablets) to our various charity clinics. They have benefited thousands of poor patients.
Cheaper Drugs Corner: Please take note
I will be listing here newly-available cheaper counterparts of various expensive drugs.
• Amlodipine for high blood pressure. A cheaper brand is Amvasc BE 10 mg (P24). Most patients need only half a tablet for only P12 a day.
• Amiodarone for irregular heart beat. Two cheaper brands have come out such as Sandoz Amiodarone (P43) and Anoion (P39).
• Clopidogrel. A cheaper brand is Clopivaz (P40).
• Cilostazol. A cheaper brand is Trombocil (P38).
These are lifesaving drugs for the heart. Would you believe that the prices listed above are already 50 percent lower than the leading brands? They offer huge savings for our patients. Consult your doctor about this.
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E-mail questions to drwillieong@gmail.com.
