After legal patents preventing the manufacture of generic versions of drugs expires, other pharmaceutical companies can step up to the plate to try and produce their own versions.
Some, are much better than others.
One such company, Centurion Laboratories, decided to take a stab at the modafinil market, producing their own version of the Brand name product, Provigil®.
They called their product Vilafinil.
Are they a reputable company? How does Vilafinil compare to other generic modafinil versions? Should I buy some? Where’s the best place to buy vilafinil?
We answer all of these questions and more.
The Afinil Family of Drugs
There are a few members of the afinil family, but the most important ones are modafinil (Modalert, Modvigil, and Provigil®), adrafinil (Olmifon), and armodafinil (Waklert, Artvigil, and Nuvigil®).
Adrafinil was the first to be discovered.
It was discovered by Lafon Laboratories in France, but quickly piqued the interest of large players in the pharmaceutical industry.
The reason it was so exciting was that it was comparable in its effects to many of the blockbuster ADD/ADHD medications used at the time but came with far fewer side effects.
The most common medications used to treat ADD/ADHD were amphetamines (Adderall), and methylphenidate (Ritalin & Concerta). Both of these medication classes often produced severe neurological side effects, including paranoia, hallucinations, social anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders.
Adrafinil seemed to produce none of these effects in early testing.
It was quickly discovered that once adrafinil entered the body, it was metabolized into two compounds; modafinilic acid and modafinil.
Modafinilic acid is inactive and is eventually excreted from the body through the kidneys. Modafinil, on the other hand, was shown to remain active in the bloodstream.
It was determined that it was more efficient to use the active metabolite, modafinil, directly because it avoids having half of each dose rendered useless by liver metabolism.
Most of the research from this point on has been around the use of modafinil rather than adrafinil.
The third type of afinil available is armodafinil.
This version is the same as modafinil but is a specific enantiomer of the compound (R-modafinil). It has slightly stronger effects overall and is given at a dose 25% smaller than modafinil.
The reason why these versions are better, despite containing the same active ingredient, is that these pills are more reliable in their effect profiles, widely available, and are offered in the same price range as Vilafinil.