AboutBarbara Judge Expertise Outpatient pharmacy and general health. I have recently completed a Pharmceutical Care Certificate Program offered by Purdue University (Spring 1999 completion). I have personal experience dealing with terminally ill persons and their needs, as well as their families` needs. I graduated in 1984 from Pharmacy School and have been a Licensed Pharmacist since then. I have 18 years retail pharmacy experience. Prior to my pharmacy training I have 3 years hospital experience as a Nurse`s Aide.
Question My family has gerd. I borrowed some prevacid 30 mg soluble pills from them and I take 1 pill and have absolutely no heartburn for almost a week it works amazing since I suffer from very bad heartburn. They might be losing there insurance and I am wondering about this new prevacid 24hr that is supposed to be available soon over the counter. Do you know what that will cost and will it work the same where I will only need 1 pill a week? I don't like putting pills in my body and hope this pill will be the same and inexpensive. Without insurance, prescription prevacid is 190 bucks at my pharmacy which I cant afford.
Answer The over the counter version of Prevacid that has been approved by the FDA is going to be Prevacid 15mg, while Prevacid 30mg will still remain prescription only. The dosing recommendations for prescription Prevacid 15mg (as it is currently available now) is still to take one capsule daily. Whether you will respond as well to a 15mg dose as you did to a 30mg dose would be impossible to predict. Pricing information has also not been released by the manufacturer at this time, however I would expect it to be competitive with Prilosec OTC. It is even possible that having 2 similar products in the market may drive down the price.
