No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Bob Russell — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:28:40 GMT

Latest update from our rep! Apparently Novartis are not planning to stop production and were hoping to move production to a new site. For some reason this has fallen through hence the break in production!

It appears that Novartis are buying the Calmivet from Vetoquinol so will be in charge of technical support etc. It does not have a UK licence so we need to do the VMD paperwork thing (part of the job creation scheme continued by the coalition government).

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Bob Russell — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 12:50:15 GMT

[quote user="Wren"]

There's going to be no 10mg/ml either?

I use it for all my equine pre-meds, to prolong many sedations, penis exams etc. etc. etc.............. Now what?

[/quote]

Not such a problem hopefully as you can give double dose 5mg/ml but my concern is the tiny doses of 2mg ACP for cats and in our practice 48mls of the bottle will be thrown away at the end of the month!

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Wren — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:33:36 GMT

Although, as it turned out, there was life after Dermobion....

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Wren — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:28:54 GMT

There's going to be no 10mg/ml either?

I use it for all my equine pre-meds, to prolong many sedations, penis exams etc. etc. etc.............. Now what?

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Bob Russell — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 10:00:24 GMT

[quote user="Eamon McAllister"]

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

We received a letter from Novartis informing us that ACP injection is no longer to be manufactured.

How many of the 50ml bottles of Calmivet will go in the bin after 28 days? The dose for cats is going to be tiny and difficult to accurately measure as the French product is 5mg/ml.

Is this another indicator of how unimportant the drugs companies consider the veterinary profession? Almost every practice in the UK uses at least some ACP.

What alternative premed regimen are practices using that mean we do not need to use ACP at all?

[/quote]

Was going to suggest you buy the 10 mg/ml ACP . Remove 20 ml from a 100 ml bottle of sterile water for injection and replace with the 20 ml of 10mg/ml and hey presto ! you then have 100 ml of 2mg /ml. Probably illegal though.

[/quote]

May be illegal but I am not particularly worried about that but this is no good as the 10mg/ml size is going as well. If I could be bothered I could start up a buying group so we can buy one bottle of 5mg/ml Calmivet and dilute it for all the Southampton veterinary practices.

It is becoming increasingly clear that product range is not important to the drugs companies so nor should it be for us. Cascade be bu**ered time for us to get the cheapest medicines we can. Boots are quite cheap for medicines at the moment.

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Rob Loxley — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 09:26:56 GMT

Add to this the loss of Insuvet, Auromycin eye oint; problems with Rabies vaccs, Lepto vaccs and other vaccs, and you wonder where all those billions the drug companies charge goes ?? Also it seems straight answers are as forthcoming as ever from drug companies...

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Wren — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:15:15 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

The letter sent to us does not mention any indication that this is temporary. The wording is different to that on the linked statement. It simply says that they will be unable to supply ACP injection (either strengths) but ACP tablets will continue to be manufactured.

[/quote]

We have been unable to get 25mg tablets for some time which is a royal pain for horse work (yes, I know the cascade says we should be using Sedalin instead!).

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Eamon McAllister — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:38:02 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

We received a letter from Novartis informing us that ACP injection is no longer to be manufactured.

How many of the 50ml bottles of Calmivet will go in the bin after 28 days? The dose for cats is going to be tiny and difficult to accurately measure as the French product is 5mg/ml.

Is this another indicator of how unimportant the drugs companies consider the veterinary profession? Almost every practice in the UK uses at least some ACP.

What alternative premed regimen are practices using that mean we do not need to use ACP at all?

[/quote]

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Mike Martin — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:15:55 GMT

I'm surprised there is not already a generic on the market by now...? Certainly room for one now.

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Bob Russell — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:56:01 GMT

Which is right? Is it permanent as indicated in the letter sent to the practice? Is it temporary as the statement issued yesterday?

Very confusing. We had the rep from Novartis over recently - not a word about it from her.

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Arlo Guthrie — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:02:02 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]We received a letter from Novartis informing us that ACP injection is no longer to be manufactured.[/quote]

Novartis issued a statement about this yesterday (here) - which I read to say that the situation was temporary whilst they get a new manufacturing plant organised.

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Clive Ansell — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:15:38 GMT

Will the 10mg/ml be discontinued too? Some practices already use this and dilute 5:1 for small animal use.

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Mark Holmes — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:12:52 GMT

I have used medetomidine, lovely premed but it can make reactionary haemorrhage more of an issue, I have started avoiding it in surgery where blood vessels cannot be predicted such as lumpectomies after one or two significant haematomas. Very irritating when you have a nice clean wound at closure followed by blood everywhere when the peripheral vasoconstriction wears off.

I am planning on making an official complaint to my Novartis rep. I won't be abusive just voice my disquiet. ACP is a staple drug as we are left with nothing sufficiently like it to use as a direct alternative. Hypnovel and domitor/dexdomitor are useful but not really sufficiently alike to rely on. I'm not sure that hypnovel is licensed so really our only option is medetomidine if we are to follow the cascade to the letter!

Re: No more 2mg/ml ACP!

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:21:19 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]What alternative premed regimen are practices using that mean we do not need to use ACP at all?[/quote]

We use 0.1ml/10kg Medetomidine mixed with 0.1ml/10kg Butorphanol given subcut. Excellent sedation, veins still fine to hit. Good because have no qualified nurses, but wouldn't want to change if we did. You have to let them sedate properly and induce slowly, but never had any bother.