Did Sentinel (Heartworm Medication) lower their prices? - Page 1

Well, Beau was due for his monthly heartworm preventative, so I took a little trip to the vet's office today.

Little did I know what I was in store for! $15.75 a dose for 51-100lbs?! Since when the heck was it so cheap? I used to pay $25-$30 PER PILL at this very same vet's office not 6 months ago!

Was this because they stopped production of the Sentinel temporarily, so they raised price due to "shortage"?

Needless to say, I stocked up, I bought 4 months worth, why the heck not, at that price?

Anyone else noticed this lately?

As far as I'm aware, Novartis (manufacturer) has not yet restarted production of Sentinel, Interceptor and the other animal health products that were made at the Lincoln, NE plant, so my guess is that what you bought is somewhat short-dated and your vet discounted it for that reason.  I've been keeping an eye out for news that Novartis has either shifted manufacturing of these products to another facility (unlikely) or has reopened the Nebraska plant, because I've been using Interceptor for my dogs and would prefer to continue to do so...I stocked up on it as soon as I heard about the plant shut-down, and I've got enough for another 5 months.  If your vet has more Sentinel available, I'd consider buying as much as you can afford, because at last report (three weeks ago) Novartis was STILL not projecting when these products would be back on-line. :(  I tried to order more Interceptor back in April, but the wholesalers were already out of it already. 

Oh, no worries there, Hexe, I plan on going back next week for more, assuming the vet isn't limiting pre-purchases of it.

I didn't think that they were producing Sentinel anymore. It may be that they're swapping everyone over to something else, so lowered the price of Sentinel to get rid of the stock.

macrowe1, it's certainly possible that Novartis will decide to drop the product, but at the moment they have made no such indication.  Production of Sentinel, along with Interceptor, along with several products for human use, was voluntarily stopped in December 2011, after 15 days of observation by FDA inspectors at their Linclon, Nebraska plant:

http://journalstar.com/business/local/most-recent-fda-report-sheds-light-on-novartis-shutdown-recall/article_1f892d5d-64cc-55fd-84ef-21e06daaed3b.html

The company was projecting to resume production of all products by midyear 2012, and did begin manufacturing some generic products in March of this year (Opana, and morphine sulfate extended-release tablets) but they have yet to restart making the majority of the pharmaceuticals put out by that plant.  Here's a list of what was made at that facility:

For Novartis Consumer Health: Excedrin, NoDoz, Bufferin and Gas-X Prevention products that are included in the voluntary recall, as well as other over-the-counter products including Theraflu, Triaminic, Voltaren, Benefiber, Maalox and Lamisil that are not included in the voluntary recall.

For Novartis Animal Health:  Interceptor, Sentinel, Program, Deramaxx, Clomicalm.

For Endo: Opana,  (oxymorphone hydrochloride) Tablets;   Percocet (oxycodone hydrochloride and acetaminophen USP) Tablets; Percodan, (oxycodone hydrochloride and aspirin, USP) Tablets;  Endocet (oxycodone hydrochloride and acetaminophen USP) Tablets;  Endodan  (oxycodone hydrochloride and aspirin, USP) Tablets;  morphine sulfate extended-release tablets;  Zydone  (hydrocodone bitartrate/acetaminophen tablets, USP)

Source:  http://www.journalstar.com   and  Novartis