SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - It's become one of the hottest and most unlikely commodities on the internet - Excedrin the popular headache drug going for hundreds of dollars on eBay targeting consumers desperate for relief.
Erin Terjesen is a migraine sufferer, she said, “Six years ago I made the switch to Excedrin Migraine and it really, really worked.”
Erin was forced to switch after Novartis, the company that manufacturers Excedrin, voluntarily recalled all of its Excedrin products
"The company that makes it also makes some highly potent drugs, narcotic drugs, that basically were mixed in with the tablets in their over the counter Excedrin,” said pharmacist Ryan Lindquist.
Lindquist works at Jolley's Pharmacy in Salt Lake City. He’s seen dozen of loyal Excedrin customers coming in looking for their favorite pain killer that's been missing from store shelves for months. Instead he's been showing them the generic brands. They’re half the price, and Lindquist says, they work just as well because it's made with the same ingredients.
“250 milligrams acetaminophen, 250 milligrams caffeine, 65 milligrams per capsule the same formulation as one of the migraine formulas Excedrin makes,” explained Lindquist of one of the generic brands.
But Erin Terjesen who has been suffering from migraines for 16 years says, for her, generic just is not the same. “In this particular situation, I didn't feel that the generic affected me as positively as a name brand,” said Terjesen.
Novartis says it is working hard to get production back up and running and expects to begin shipments of quote, "a limited portfolio of products in the second half of the year."
