Today's newspapers contain a disturbing article that some drugs, including prednisolone, may be in short supply from this month. Apparently wholesale prices for common drugs including steroids have rocketed in the last few months, say chemists, with some quadrupling or more. The article says a pack of prednisolone now costs just under £60 wholesale – but pharmacists get just £13.88 to dispense it. So pharmacists are understandably losing money with each prescription and are not re-stocking. This comes as a big surprise to me as I've always believed steroids were as cheap as chips! It seems the NHS are not engaging with pharmacists to recognise the problem. Do you think anyone is fighting our corner on this?
Upcoming restricted supply of prenisolone in the UK? - PMRGCAuk
Upcoming restricted supply of prenisolone in the UK?
Written by
pinks33
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Read more about...
35 Replies
•
DorsetLadyPMRGCAuk volunteer
Which papers?... do you have online link to article?
Here is the Mims current drug shortages in UK.
Alliance who provide pred in UK do not mention a problem in that area.
PMRproAmbassador
I seem to remember the DM having similar panics most years ...
I wouldn't trust a word that so called newspaper prints
Actually they wrote an article on my GCA and sight loss some 8 years ago, which was factual and correct. …and hopefully stopped others having same experience as I did..which was why I agreed to talk to them. They approached the charity and asked if anyone was willing to discuss their GCA story - I was contacted, and agreed.
Some of their journalism is suspect, but not all.
Some years back now, one of my Consultants was 'Expecting' Many Enquiries..... Yup DM had had written Article...... Yes there ARE, a few, Supply Issues and Yes a few Costing ones too. however this should NOT, overly impact Supplies.
If I have 'Problems' then, I'm sure, my Consultant will 'Help Out'- as he has, several times, in the past. I would advise 'Everyone' to give a similar 'Heads Up', to your own 'Teams'.....Just In Case.
I wouldn't 'Worry', too much, though 'Everyone' and, if it's not too early,,,,,
Merry Christmas Yo'All
AndrewT
Typical DM & l read it every day! 🙈
I’m away right now - in my Spiritual Home - but No WiFi 🤦🏻 - l’ll investigate further when l’m home!
This is why is always good to have a bit ‘In Stock’ ……
Wikipedia will not use 'information' from The Mail as it's so unreliable.
in reply to Purpleprimate
that’s interesting and worth knowing, I’m an avid reader of wiki
The NICE price for the 28 pack show was 76p the last time I looked. They are talking about a 30 pack at £13.88, so not the same thing. Could it be the coated tablets?
Good point. But the photo of a pred packet in the article does show a 28 packet of uncoated pred, if that means anything. I'd thought the mention of a 30 tablet packet was just a typo. But I am coming to the view that there is something amiss about the article because of the enormous disparity between the NICE price of 76p as you say (cheap as chips as I'd always thought) and the wholesale price of £60. I've googled this, and can't find any mention in any other newspaper. Let's hope it is just careless journalism.
To be fair - an even worse price rise happened with hydrocortisone when a foreign company bought the UK one making the entire UK supply. Think it was 3000%! It was ruled illegal and they did back down I think. In the meantime I suspect a lot of HC users had been swapped to pred which does work for adrenal insufficiency, sometimes even works better.
See email from Phoenix Labs in Ireland who say they still supply coated 1mg Prednisolone but in 100 tab pots.
Email frm Phoenix labs in Ire saying they stil supply 1mg coated Pred but in 100 pots
I’ve been getting my 1mg EC Prednisolone in pots for a few months now.
the Royal Pharmaceutical Society GB (RPSGB) should be able to answer, it is membership based and has about 50,000 registered pharmacists in UK although not all will be dispensing as a small proportion are industrial pharmacists or veterinary but they do have knowledge of things like this.
The 5mg coated tablets come in 30s, I recall. They have just used a stock photo without checking, which is very irresponsible. That is the DM for you.
Pharmacist takes 2 out and changes 30 to 28 on the pack.
Oddly, I've literally (prior to reading your post) just phoned my local chemist to renew my Prednisolone, only to be told that according to his records, my Pred is now listed as 'Acute' and not 'Repeat' as it usually is. I've been on Pred for 12 years, so I don't know what this will mean for my future supply of Pred, but I hope it's not a negative change, or I'll be bedridden.
I do know that our GP practice has recently changed hands, and a whole new set of GP's are now at the surgery. Since they've taken over I've had telephone conversations with two of them. Both of them wanted me to reduce my current dose from 4mg to 3mg as quickly as possible. I've explained to both of them that I am trying to reduce my dosage, but that it's a very slow process. I also pointed out to them both that earlier in my Pred journey, when I got down to around 10mg per day, it triggered GCA, twice! So trying to get me to reduce the dosage quickly could easily trigger GCA again, which I really don't want.
I suspect that one or both of the GP's I spoke to have now decided that as my dose is less than 5mg per day, as far as they're concerned my PMR is over, so I will only need the Pred if my symptoms become 'Acute' once more.
I think I will be speaking to a GP at the practice again quite soon about this, as I don't want to be stuck in some kind of limbo where I have to prove to them that my symptoms have become 'Acute' each and every time I want to renew my Pred prescription.
I understand your anxiety over the unexplained change to your medical records. I would speak to both the GP and the pharmacist to clarify things. I would have thought you should taper down gradually to zero, and not stop suddenly on 4mg/3mg. Ask your GP how best to taper down. But hopefully you have a stock of pred to keep you going for a while anyway. Good luck!
B£**&^ would be acute if they don't keep up your pred - an adrenal crisis is about as acute as it gets!!!
Oh dear though - inexperienced GPs can be a nightmare ...
“Acute or Repeat”…
I might be wrong but thinking about previous entries on my patient record “Acute” indicates the dose is likely to change (as in our case with Pred when tapering etc ) -whereas “Repeat” indicates dose remains the same - ie - VitD/Calcium supplement.
But do check with surgery….as GPs are new they may have reviewed your records…and as we know a lot of them are only used to prescribing Pred for acute cases…so might be a default setting which needs to be overridden.
I've got a telephone appointment with one of the GPs this morning. I'll find out what they mean by 'Acute', and I'll update this post once I've got the information. Meanwhile, thank you DL for helping to allay my fears a little.
Hello again. Just had the conversation with the new GP. He explained that the software in the computer has been set up to convert all 'Repeat' prescriptions to 'Acute' after six months as a default setting.
When I explained about my history with PMR, GCA, and Pred, he told me he's changed my prescription back to 'Repeat', and he also told me not to try and taper too quickly, but to listen to my body, and if I found that my pain levels were increasing, to increase my Pred dose in response. Phew! Someone with knowledge and sense at last.
I told him I do want to come off Pred, and I had set myself a target of trying to get off it by the end of 2023, as I'm worried about the long term side effects of Pred. He replied that whatever damage Pred may do to my body has already been done due to the length of time I've been on the drug. He also said not to worry about trying to come off Pred too quickly, as this could trigger much worse effects than staying on it, and told me not to set targets, but to go with whatever my body is comfortable with.
So all in all I'm very relieved that the new GP is switched on to PMR, and has good sense when it comes to dosage and tapering. Let's hope the path will be a little smoother from now on.
Good to hear about default computer setting -did wonder if it was something as simple as that butworrying if you don’t know -so glad you checked.
Better news, a sensible GP -good luck…but don’t get too hung up on long term steroid use bad effects -me off Pred for 6 years (on for 4.5years -GCA so hefty amounts) -hasn’t left me with any apparent damage. Others may disagree 🤣😂
That sounds like a find!!! Like DL, I can't really identify anything too bad after over 13 years of pred!
Thinking about it, it is probably a way of checking people aren't just getting their repeats without needing them. Although there are going to be people who DO need something and won't go to the effort of getting an appointment to check.
Stock of Pred? I wish. So far I've had to take them rather than stock them, so I don't have a secret stash I can fall back on.
A few of us (me included) are not the pack rats we need to be! My stock of pred is, at most, enough for the next month!
Funny how the NHS gets robbed by the drug companies. I had to buy bottles of 1000 x 5mg preds, in 2009 and 2017, from a veterinary surgeon to treat a horse. 140 tabs a day. The last bottle of 1000 preds cost me £28. Imagine crushing 140 tabs, mixing with water and trying to get that lot up a horse's mouth with a syringe!
Not what you're looking for?
You may also like...
Recently Diagnosed - or not? (UK)
So thats me now (51y/o) - just starting 30mg of Steroids for 2 weeks.... as of day 5, no change so...
Further Update & Upcoming Rheumatology Appt Advice
struggling when tapering from 12.5mg to 10mg of Prednisolone I finally heeded the advice of the...
Upcoming vaccinations for flu and Covid
vaccination? This may sound silly because, at all costs, I want to avoid it, of course BUT I have...
Late diagnoses Male aged 75 in UK
a fever for 5 days and after this over the next month gradually got pains in both shoulders and my...
El 50 introducing myself.
Tocilizumab in the UK
Cannabis Oil to be available on prescription in uk within a month
Join the Virus Watch project ( in the UK)
