November 7 2006, 12:33 pm PT | Posted in: Drugs
Hello Doctor,
I am a 29 year old male who has been taking propecia for around 8 years. It has worked well at halting my hairloss. Recently, my dermatologist told me I should try generic finasteride to save money. Will generic finasteride work as well as propecia?
Yes, the generic finasteride will work as well as the non-generic finasteride. It is the same drug - just that the generic is available in 5mg tablets (same as Proscar), where Propecia is in 1mg pills. The 5mg pills should be cut down to 1/4 tablet taken each day to minimize side effects. For more about cutting the 5mg tablets down to the dosage used for treating hair loss, please see:
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Balding Forum
This is not true, I have tried Generic Propecia manufactured in India and China (where the majority of generic Propecia comes from) as well as various countries in Latin America during my travels. I have tried each one for several months always with the same results… after 1 or 2 months I start seeing SIGNIFICANTLY more hair loss. I always switch back to brand name Propecia by Merck and my hair loss almost stops. I have had a hair transplant and do not work for any of these companies. I have tried the cheaper alternatives too in hopes that the generic product will work as good as the brand name, but it just hasn’t been the case. I’ve spent hundreds on the generics and always end of throwing them out after 2 months. Beware false claims to get you to buy the generic pills… they just don’t work as well.
There is no such thing as Generic Propecia, only Generic Proscar. The products claiming to be generic propecia, such as finpecia, are not FDA-approved and there is no guarantee of their efficacy. They may work just as well, or not as well or not as all.
If you are in the US or Canada, you can get Generic Proscar. In my case my wife’s insurance covers it for $5 for 30 pills which lasts 4 months. Even without insurance it’s something like $75USD for 30 pills which comes out to $20/month, still cheaper than propecia.
I say spend $250 a year on yourself if you don’t have insurance and just get proscar from someone like Barr Laboratories or another company like that. Remember all those lead-tainted toys we got from China?