Are there manufacturers of finasteride other than Merck Pharmaceutical?
A. Yes. The patent for Proscar® expired on 19 June 2006. Teva Pharmaceuticals has been approved by the US FDA to market a 5mg finasteride tablet. Generic 1 mg tablets may also become available. If you shop around you should be able to find the best price. The finasteride is homogeneously distributed throughout the 5mg tablet of Proscar® and generic finasteride tablets. Use a pill cutter or any sharp blade and cut the hard tablets into four pieces. You will undoubtedly also create some powder and many smaller fragments. It really makes no difference if the pieces are of unequal size. The range of effectiveness is very wide and has been shown to vary as much as from 0.2 mg to 5 mg of finasteride. Furthermore, there is such a tight bond created between the finasteride and the Type 2 5AR, that even if you discontinue taking finasteride altogether, it will require two weeks for your DHT level to return to your baseline levels. So, a variation in the daily dosage is really inconsequential. T
