The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared more than a dozen drug companies to start selling generic versions of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication Vyvanse, a move that may ease an acute shortage of ADHD medicines.
“This is great news for patients who have been struggling to access their medications due to shortages,” says Jack Turban, MD, an assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry and the director of the gender psychiatry program at the University of California in San Francisco. “I suspect and hope this will make a substantial impact.”
Multiple ADHD Drugs Are in Short Supply
ADHD medicines have been hard to get for nearly a year now. The FDA first reported shortages for the ADHD medicine Adderall in October 2022. As patients scrambled to find alternatives, other ADHD drugs became scarce, too. In July, the FDA announced shortages of the ADHD drugs Concerta and Vyvanse.
Now the FDA has approved generic versions of Vyvanse, which all include the same active ingredient as the brand-name drug, to be manufactured by a total of 14 different companies. Regulators cleared both capsules and chewable tablets for people 6 years and older with ADHD and for adults with moderate to severe binge eating disorder, another condition treated with Vyvanse.
The active ingredient in Vyvanse and all the new generic versions of this drug is lisdexamfetamine dimesylate, a stimulant that changes the mix of chemicals in the brain and improves how these chemicals communicate in order to improve attention and impulse control. Other ADHD medications, including Adderall and Concerta, have different active ingredients and work slightly differently to ease ADHD symptoms.
Can I Switch to Generic Vyvanse From Another ADHD Drug?
It should be fairly straightforward for anyone already taking Vyvanse for ADHD to switch to generic versions of this drug because they work exactly the same way, says Dr. Turban. Some people taking other stimulants might also try generic Vyvanse, especially if this is the only thing they can get while their regular medicines are out of stock at their local pharmacy.
But patients shouldn’t switch to generic Vyvanse from another type of ADHD drug without talking to their doctor first, Turban adds. “For some patients, it may be appropriate to switch from the medication they’re having trouble filling, such as Concerta or Adderall XR to generic Vyvanse, but for others, this may not be appropriate,” Turban says.
It may also take several months before generic Vyvanse is widely available, says Lauren Hoffman, PharmD, a clinical pharmacy specialist in psychiatry at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. And even then, it’s not yet clear if generics will be consistently available or if shortages will develop, Dr. Hoffman adds.
“It’s quite possible that we may see shortages even of these new products as manufacturers work to ramp up production and meet demand,” Hoffman says.
How Much Will Generic Vyvanse Cost?
Beyond this, it is also not yet clear whether Vyvanse generics will help patients save a lot of money, Hoffman says. “There will be a lot of competition between generic products right off the bat, which may help to drive down the price,” Hoffman says. “This dynamic is of course further complicated by the extremely high demand for the product right now, which still may end up outpacing supply.”
