The United Colon Vlog

I’ve got a new drug to tell you guys about. I know many of you are considering surgery but some people like to exhaust all their medicinal options before undergoing surgery.

Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals, makers of Asacol have just released a newer, stronger of version of Asacol called Asacol HD. The “HD” stands for “High Dose,” not “High Def” (as in high definition television).

Asacol HD is mesalamine, just like Asacol, and is intended to treat moderate ulcerative colitis, whereas Asacol is meant for mild ulcerative colitis. You may have tried Asacol in the first days after your diagnosis.

The main difference between the two medicines is the size of the dosage. Asacol is taken in 400 mg doses with a maximum of 2.4 g/day. Asacol HD is taken in 800 mg doses with a maximum of 4.8 g/day. So the new version of Asacol is simply double the dose of the old medicine.

The press information on Asacol HD make clear that one HD tablet is not bioequivalent to two Asacold tablets. In test results of Asacol HD, patients with moderate colitis showed a more positive response to the HD version of the drug after six weeks than to the mild version of the drug.

I asked the company how this can be and they replied:

[T]he active ingredient in both Asacol HD and Asacol is mesalamine, and it is identical in each drug aside from the dose. The 800mg has a similar eudragit coating as the 400mg, but due to the tablet size the release profiles of the coating are not identical to the release profiles of the 400mg tablet.

That’s as much as I know about the differences between the two drugs.

Clinical studies of Asacol HD studied the drug for six weeks, so its effectiveness beyond that time-frame has yet to be established. In studies, 75% of people had decreased frequency of bowel movements after six weeks and 80% had decreased rectal bleeding after six weeks. The drug seems to have relatively few side effects, but like all medicines there’s a chance of more serious side effects.

And as always, don’t take my word as medical advice, talk to your doctor about new medicines that you might want to try.

Keep fighting,
~Dennis