After having such a great experience with the real Remicade back in 2012, I was happy that my doctor was going to put me back on a course since my Crohns and Fistulas have gone downhill past 6 months. Long story short, after a long long long fight with my new insurance company (initially said NO WAY they would EVER approve Remicade), my doctor called for a "peer to peer" which means he is going to "let them have it" with his disapproval. Insurance finally gave A LITTLE and approved Renflexis, one of the brand new generic versions (Biosimilar) of Remicade since their patent expired short time ago.
So first infusion goes smooth with drip Benadryl etc etc. Get home and immediately feel horrible. It was like I got "Insta-flu". Just completely exhausted and started spiking 100 fevers. Doctors and infusion dept says to closely watch symptoms for full rejection but this is not out of the realm for now.
2 FULL weeks go by of the flu like symptoms with the only improvement being at the end of the 2 weeks as my body was clearing the Renflexis crap out of my system. I want so badly to be back in balance that I gave it one more try and infused it again at 2 weeks. Needless to say, things got worse. I began spiking 102 fevers and exhaustion was just terrible. I ended up going to the ER where I got some fluids and some Pred but home I was sent and here I sit.
Oh and the Crohns and Fistula....wide open now and worse than ever. Literally with no exaggeration, absolutely ZERO improvement and actual worsening of symptoms.
So there you go for the first J-Pouch.org review of Renflexis, the generic Remicade. Obviously everyones results may vary and everyone responds differently, but I feel that Renflexis is in no way a substitute for Remicade. Now this being the first review I believe ANYWHERE on the internet of Renflexis, there is a high chance of the drug company trying to pull this down but I humbly ask for this to remain to warn our members about my experience with trying this Biosimilar.
As Jan always says, "This too shall pass.."
