Arimidex Packaging Alert!!! New Blister Packs Banished!

AbbyDawg · 10-15-2008, 08:25 PM

I wrote this response in a different thread but thought it deserved its own thread. We no longer have to tolerate those Arimidex blister packs!

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Great news about the Arimidex impenetrable packaging fiasco! I called my pharmacist and ranted and he said he'd rant to his salesman ... then he asked if there was an 800 number on the NEW packaging. Sure enuff there was in giant letters! So I called them, the FIRST thing the recorded message says is, "If you are calling about the new packaging for Arimidex, please press one." Hmmmm, does that make ya think they are already getting an ear full?

I stayed on the line and also complained to a Real Person but the main message they are saying is that as of Sept. 1, 2008, they went back to the 30 count bottle or the new packing option. We get to choose. Oh, by the way, they did mention that they are examining new reforms to the blister packs. Duhhhhhhhhhh.

Sooooo, the bottom line is that all pharmacists can give you the old 30 count bottles ... as long as they know now they can order it either way. I suggest you all call your pharmacists ahead of the time for your next reorder and say you will not accept the blister packs and ask them to order the bottles. My pharmacist did not know they had changed back on Sept. 1 and was SO happy to know he could order the bottles again for all his customers.

We DOOOO have power!!!!

I asked the nurse on the phone, "What ever possessed a presumably intelligent company to even come close to making such an idiotic change like that?" She said it was to help people not forget to take it each day. I told her the packaging would not only cause MORE non-compliance, it would be reason enough for me to switch to a different treatment.

Margerie · 10-15-2008, 09:30 PM

Abby,

I agree!! Actually, a big thread over at bc.org is ranting away, myself included....

http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/78/topic/709569

the bad news is some pharmacies do not yet have the bottles available as they haven't dispensed all the blisterbastards. My pharmacy included.

The good news is you can rip off all the cardboard and push out the pills easily from the foil and put in your old bottle if needed. Someone posted on how to do this on the above thread with photos if anyone is interested.

And if anyone is wondering what Abby and I are talking about, Arimidex arrived this summer in a "new, improved" blister pack. I could barely get one pill out with a pair of tweezers, an eye pencil and some grunting. And I cut my finger. It is horrible.

sassy · 10-15-2008, 09:58 PM

I only had to endure one month of blisterpacks. We're back on the bottle!

PinkGirl · 10-16-2008, 06:42 AM

Am I missing something here (again)??? My Arimidex has always
been in a blister pack. The back is covered with a thin pink foil
and the pills pop out easily.

Soccermom · 10-16-2008, 09:28 AM

Hah! PINK got the easy to use one! We Yankees must have been the guinea pigs this time having to arm wrestle with the "new improved" bulletproof packaging!
WOOOOHHHOOOIE , Thanks for the good news AbbyDawg!

Back on the bottled, indeed! Too funny!

suzan w · 10-17-2008, 08:46 AM

too funny!!! I just logged on after 2 months...in our remote New Mexico cabin...only to see that I am not the only one who has been chopping into my arimidex with an axe!!!