 |
When faced with the prospect of paying $570 for a 30gm tube of Rhofade or $494 for a 30gm tube of Mirvaso, these authors suggest that you can save 15% straight up by asking to compare them before you even leave the doctor’s surgery.
The 15% saving comes from going away being happy that you can use the cheaper of the two treatment for rosacea redness – Mirvaso. Cheaper is a relative term of course, and if your insurance covers both equally you might not care which of Mirvaso or Rhofade works for you, and long as one of them does.
Further, if you follow this paper’s suggestion; or clinical pearl as the author’s call it, you may even leave the surgery having saved yourself the whole $500 – by discovering quickly that neither are a viable option for you.
Ask your doctor to try both Rhofade and Mirvaso in their clinic
The idea of this paper is that you can ask to trial both Mirvaso and Rhofade as a small sample treatment in the doctor’s clinic. You will know in just 30 minutes whether it is worthwhile getting the prescription filled and giving it a decent evaluation.
In our clinic, we leverage the short acting time of these agents and the evident clinical outcome for better patient selection.
Brimonidine acts within 30 minutes of application, and while the effect time of oxymetazoline in rosacea is not well described, our clinical experience indicates a similar time to effect.
While the patient is in clinic and after discussion of the medications’ benefits, adverse effects and alternatives, we apply a small amount of brimonidine sulfate to one cheek, and oxymetazoline HCL to the other.
Patients are then allowed to sit with the medication in clinic for 15 to 30 minutes. After this short incubation, clinical response is typically evident as a lighter patch in the area of application.
We do not need to wait for a full response, as the goal of this test is not to determine which medication the patient will have the greater response with, but rather whether or not the patient will have any response to either medication. The patient can then decide if they are happy with the response and a relevant prescription is offered.
A Novel Approach
This article has left me wondering why has no-one ever thought of this approach to treatment before? Probably the answer lies in the fact that Mirvaso and Rhofade are somewhat similar drugs and can be easily compared in parallel to each other.
It would be great if many other treatments could also be evaluated this quickly – but alas other topical treatments typically take several weeks to show a response.
So go and see if your doctor will let you trial both Mirvaso and Rhofade right there in their office before you even get your prescription written.
Article Abstract
Fifteen Minute Test May Save 15% or More on Rosacea Treatment
Evan Darwin BA, Jessica Cervantes BA, and Hadar Lev-Tov MD.
J Drugs Dermatol. 2018;17(5):692-693
Rosacea is a common inflammatory skin condition that impacts a large portion of fair-skinned populations.
The redness associated with rosacea can be a significant challenge. Brimonidine sulfate and oxymetazoline HCL were both recently approved by the FDA for the management of facial redness.
These agents, however, are costly, and not all patients respond to the medication.
Herein, we describe a clinical pearl that helps to optimize patient selection for the medications. This saves the patient and the health care system both time and money.
Galderma offers a coupon on their websit, “Galderma Care Connect.” It says, “The Galderma® CareConnect Program is brought to you by Galderma Laboratories, L.P. The Galderma CareConnect Patient Savings Card provides
savings on out-of-pocket expenses for up to a 30-day supply of included Galderma products, as described below. If you have valid prescriptions for
more than one Galderma product, the copay expense and savings apply to each product. You may use the Patient Savings Card once every 30 days,
depending on when you last received a 30-day supply of each Galderma product. Use of the Patient Savings Card does not obligate you to use or to
continue using any Galderma product. You may use the Patient Savings Card at any participating pharmacy located in the United States.”
“It’s diet more than anything drug companies don’t want you to know that”
“Has anybody on here tried Finacia? Has it worked? If it hasn’t what did you use? It’s not doing anything at all for me”
” I use soolantra. No big difference other than really soft skin, been using daily for 8 weeks.”
“My Dermatoligist gave me mirvaso its no good it makes your chest go all red.The price for it here,is £40 a tube.be around $70.in america.How come its that exspensive.”
Re Finacea. In my experience Finacea is effective in treating mild outbreaks of papules/pustules. Whilst my rosacea is mostly flushing and visible capillaries, I sometimes get a few papules following a period of prolonged flushing. When this happens I apply Finacea to the papules twice a day until the red bump has gone which usually takes 5 days or so. Finacea doesn’t do anything to reduce the flushing and associated redness and can be very drying to the skin so I apply it with a cotton bud just on the papules, avoiding the surrounding skin. Hope this is helpful.
“I paid AU$80 for my Mirvaso. I’ve only had it for a couple of weeks but it’s really helps my redness – for the first half of the day anyway!”
Medicate subscribers. How do you get Rhode for under$500 . Pharmacies can’t use coupons! Help!!