a weight loss drug is to be available OTC and on the NHS.
"The list price for a month's supply ranges from £73.25 to £175.80 depending on the dose. Users inject themselves once a week.
Some high street pharmacies, as well as private medical providers, have said they plan to sell it to customers too, offering a full prescribing and dispensing service."
How come this is available for self-injection but B12 ampoules are not? (I know the answer is "profit!").
I hope that the people with clout who are campaigning for B12 ampoules to be available OTC will use this as a very powerful bargaining tool!
Written by
deniseinmilden
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The answer cannot be profit! Commercial organisations would happily sell us b12 for a profit if they were allowed to - see Germany for details. Sadly this is demarcation - the medical establishment restricting the publics access to medical treatments is a well trodden path and it is dressed up as paternalism. Why do they do this? Because if doctors restrict people to only being able to access treatment through or from them then you increase their power and financial bargaining strength. If you don't believe me consider how the BMA always opposes liberalisation such as pharmacists and nurses prescribing or b12 patients self injecting or thyroid patients being able to nudge up or down their medication. The sad reality is that the medical establishment put their power before patients.
Or maybe it's simply because B12 has been around for so long that it can be produced under a general licence so there isn't the mark up available to invest heavily in marketing, as there is with new products produced under a restricted licence...
Agree, there is no restricted licence and therefore profitability likely to be modest; however, generic medicines and vitamins are certainly produced and sold by the £ billions and indeed b12 is produced and sold by many companies. So the issue is that there is a legal restriction on this particular form of b12 OTC rather than companies not wishing to sell it. There appears to be a vested interest elsewhere that doesn't seem to want to change. If the restriction was lifted then companies would happily produce and sell the product in the UK - as happens in Germany.
Absolutely - but I guess they don't get enough out of it to make it worth their while trying to overturn the decision to block it.It's such nonsense, isn't it!
Tracey Witty is on to this. And BTW, I attended ne of Tracy's Zoom courses last week. It was so enlightening. Tracey's knowledge is amazing and her dedication is second to none.
Also good to speak and listen to others who have this horrible B12d/Pernicious Anemia.
How right you are ! I think that’s shocking that the “ slimming drug” is available over the counter when weight could be lost by diet adjustments .
P A sufferers can only be helped by getting sufficient injections to keep the horrible symptoms at bay . They are unavailable “over the counter” in the enlightened U.K. !
Exactly - very well put! It's amazing, and dreadful to be honest, isn't it?!
I'm pretty proactive with my health but really struggle to get any help at all - even when it's in the health service's interest to give me the treatment I need in the first place to stop me becoming more ill and costing much more in the long run.
But that's the whole story of B12 deficiency, isn't it, sadly. And if I'm well, I work, pay my taxes and cover my costs so it's win, win for everyone, but the Drs don't see this readily, and some just seem to refuse as part of some power trip!
Yep! Greed is the driving force in a capitalist world. Not sure the battle for B12 will be successful because Big Pharma can’t make any profit out of this relatively cheap drug. Despair.
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