Generic Teriflunomide issues

Hi,

I’ve been taking Aubagio for almost 6 years now and had been very pleased with the medication. No new plaques or lesions issues were found on my MRIs and I hadn’t noticed any side effects which were caused by the medication. Taking Aubagio was a great improvement over Avonex for me as I had pretty bad weekly flu-like symptoms.

As of the past July, my insurance removed me from being able to access Aubagio and I was placed on the generic for Aubagio which is teriflunomide.

Since last July, I have received three different generic options for Teriflunomide. All these variations of medication I found to be very concerning. To me, that is too many possibilities of problems as each generic has its own formulation.

Last week, I received a message from the drug company stating there may be another generic addition which will bring the types/companies of medicines I have been receiving to go to four.

In late February, I had my MRI completed of my brain, cervical and thoracic vertebrae both with and without contrast. (My prior MRI series was done in 2022 and showed no changes and all areas were holding well.)

This February 2024 MRI series shows ( to the best of my interpretations) a new lesion in my brain and the addition of lesions in my T4 and T5 vertebrae. These new areas didn’t light up with the contrast so they’re “new old lesions/plaques.”

I started looking into legitimate resources to see if any research had been done since the implementation of the genetic forms of Teriflunomide. Thus far, I haven’t located any studies.

Here’s my question- are there others in the MS community who also were changed from the named brand Aubagio to a generic form of Teriflunomide who have had symptom progression and/or MRI results which show the disease is progressing?

I’m trying to gather (even anecdotal) evidence to get a better idea if there are others also having similar disease progression on these newer generic forms of Teriflunomide. I’d like to see if this may be something the companies producing the generics and the FDA should be made aware of- as we all know, we’re taking medicines which we don’t actually know are working for us until they don’t work. So, to alert someone as soon as possible might be helpful if my experience really was related to all these generic forms not holding off the illness.

I was diagnosed in 1995 with MS. And, my greatest progression of plaques has just recently been found along with an incredible increase of sensory symptoms, increased fatigue, weakness and the largest change- these sensory issues are now on both sides of my body. Prior to this past summer, my symptoms were on my right side and had been since my initial optic neuritis and walking troubles at the time of my diagnosis in 1995. These addition sensory changes just seem suspect to me as they appeared after I was taken off of the brand name DMT and placed on several various generic forms of Teriflunomide.

So, are there others in the community who are also finding issues since they started taking any of the generic forms of Teriflunomide?

Thanks in advance-