Pepcid AC additives?

[CarolM (Wendolene)]

Carol, when you say prescription Pepcid do you mean Famotidine 20mg? 

Yes I do.  I'm sure nobody thinks you gave her out of date medicines Helen.  It sounds to me like the 2 products mentioned are one and the same.  Incidentally, the fact that a medicine  is past its expiry date doesn't necessarily mean it is no longer any good.  It merely means that the company cannot guarantee that its OK because they haven't tested it beyond the date they put on it.  No company EVER guarantees a product beypond 5 years - its just not economic to do the testing and keep all the samples that additional testing would entail.  Generally, if it will last 5 years without problem it will last a bit longer. The problem comes with medicines that have a shorter shelf life where this is due either to rapid decay of activity or accumulation of unwanted breakdown products.

[swampmaxmum]

thanks Helen and Carol. Whoops, didn't mean to suggest you sent me out of date Pepcid!    It was a while ago, it was so kind of you - and it's only 3 months past its date now. Thanks for the wax translation as well Carol. I think both of you have explained why the UK stuff is unfortunately unusable. (I think people use Zantac here for CRF cats, but Pepcid seems to help a bit better). I'm waiting on the yahoo groups as hopefully one of them in America can check their package insert for the full non medicinal ingredients. Otherwise, thanks to Helen I somehow managed to get some off American ebay (I'm not at all clued up on ebay auctions) which is being sent by airmail so can do so myself when it arrives (not sure how long it takes, esp this time of year).

Just gave Swampy another of the existing 1/4s which the locum seems to think should be ok for a while yet, just probably feebler in strength.

[Tiggy's Mum]

Just wanted to point out that I didn't give Kate out of date Pepcid, I sent them to her ages ago when they were in date  Hope someone on the Yahoo CRF group can confirm they're one and the same.

Carol, when you say prescription Pepcid do you mean Famotidine 20mg?  If so the reason that those are not suitable is purely the difficulty of dividing into a 2.5 mg dose, the tablet would need to be cut into eight which would be pretty tricky. US Pepcid AC is famotidine 10mg so only needs to be cut into 4. As you rightly said, the Pepcid that is available over the counter in the UK has additives that aren't suitable for cats.

[CarolM (Wendolene)]

Hi Swampmaxmum.  I've not been following Swampy's story so I don't know why it is tht you need to avoid the UK Pepcid but if you could tell me (or direct me to where you have explained it) I might be able to help you.  The ingredients that you have listed for both the US and French products are the same as those in the prescription Pepcid available in the UK (but with less of the active ingredient) i.e. they don't contain the calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide that is in the UK over the counter brand and which should be avoided in cats with renal failure.
BTW - wax is the correct translation - the ingredient is carnauba wax!  They contain starch as well

[swampmaxmum]

update: found this below on a meds site, which would indicate that the stuff sold now is the same as the french one, even in the packaging. Whether it's ok I've asked the CRF yahoo peeps. But if anyone knows, please post when you can - thanks!

Film-coated Tablets: Each rounded-square, pale rose (pink) colored, film-coated tablet, with Pepcid AC embossed on one side, contains: famotidine 10 mg. Nonmedicinal ingredients: hydroxypropyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, red ferric oxide, starch, talc and titanium dioxide. Boxes of 6, 12, 18 and 30 individually packaged in PVC/Aluminum blisters.

PS I translated starch as wax lol.

[swampmaxmum]

I'm using out of date pepcid AC from America that Helen kindly gave me. I've ordered more on ebay America but it will take a while to get here. My french friend sent me a packet of 12 'pepcidac' bought there. On the packet it says just "famotidine 10mgs", but in the package insert it has the following:
pregelatinised maize extract; microcrystalline cellulose; talc; magnesium stearate; hypromellose (?); hydroxypropylcellulose; titanium dioxide; red colourant/iron colouring; wax of cernauba (que??).

The pills are manufactured in Italy by Janssen and sold under licence in France so are not made by Merck/Johnson and Johnson (like american pepcid AC) and they are alufoil packed,not in a bottle, but they look identical - square, pink little tablets. I don't have the package insert from the American ones so am not sure if they also have these additives or not. (the colourant must be the same?).

If anyone out there does know or is using them, please could you have a look and let me know. I will ask on the CRF yahoo group but wondered if anyone here knew? Otherwise must wait for my vet to come back and run it by him.