British National Formulary (BNF) - a couple of observations

[helvella]

Many people here find it useful to look at the British National Formulary to see information about medicines.

Recently they have told us that they have overhauled the mechanism they use to determine the costs of medicines. This has resulted in the following about T3/liothyronine which seems to accord much better with our understanding of costs:

Tablets, scored, liothyronine sodium 20 micrograms, net price 28-tab pack = £52.46

Just below that, they have added this somewhat oddly worded but interesting note:

Important

Liothyronine tablets manufactured by Amdipharm Mercury may be difficult to obtain. Patients switched to a different brand should be monitored (particularly if pregnant or if heart disease present) as brands without a UK licence may not be bioequivalent and dose adjustment may be necessary; pregnant women or those with heart disease should undergo an early review of thyroid status, and other patients should have thyroid function assessed if experiencing a significant change in symptoms. If liothyronine is continued long-term, thyroid function tests should be repeated 1–2 months after any change in brand.

medicinescomplete.com/mc/bn...

tinyurl.com/TUK-HU-BNF-LIO

(That link will not work unless you are already logged into BNF - and maybe not even then.)

Rod

[RedApple Administrator]

This pricing update was long overdue!

[Zephyrbear]

Considering that during the shortage(???) I got my brother to get me some in Greece which cost less than 2 Euros for a 30 tab pack of 25mcg T3 (manufactured by Unipharm), should we conclude that Amdipharm Mercury is possibly seeing the NHS as a 'soft' target, charging a whopping £52.46 for a 28 tab pack of 20mcg T3? I guess this is what happens when a pharmaceutical company is allowed to have a monopoly... Wakey, wakey, Jeremy Hunt!!! Get some competition into the market place and watch those prices tumble! You never know, it might even lead to hypothyroid patients being offered the far more useful T3 far more than that bloody useless T4!!!

[Hidden in reply to Zephyrbear]

Very interesting. I have just looked in a 2008 MIMS (Dr's other BNF) and the price of Liothyronine 20mcg tablets is £20.00 for 28. They still cost pence and they are ripping us off royally. Same as Veterinary medicines. When I look up the cost of my animal's medications in MIMS the prices are tiny. At the vets they mark them up to 50/100 times that, it's truly disgusting. A friend of mine is paying £93.00 per month for her pooches Epilepsy drugs. The same drugs priced for humans are litterally a few pence per tablet. It's totally disgusting this manipulating for gain. Sick people (and animals) have no choice but to pay.We are all over the proverbial barrell!