After 2 months struggling with the Mercury Pharma alternative. I collected the prescription yesterday and whoopee Eltroxin it is. Of course my pharmacist could be a miracle worker.
ELTROXIN IS BACK : After 2 months struggling with... - Thyroid UK
ELTROXIN IS BACK
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meki
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34 Replies
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shawsAdministrator
That's good news for you.
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK
What dosage tablet(s)?
And what expiry date?
Rod
100mg expiry 22.08.2015 batch number 80454
Thank you for that.
What a surprise, we find out because a thoughtful patient thinks to post. Not because Mercury Pharma or anyone else tells us.
Rod
Thanks for posting about this. Could you please look at the PIL (patient information leaflet) and let us know what date it has on it?
Phoned my chemist as soon as I saw this post and she has looked into this for me and, unfortunatley, she still cannot get hold of any. She has checked with her wholesaler and it is still showing "red" (unavailable). She asked me to find out what area of the country you are in as this can sometimes make a big difference. I told her the expiry date was 2015 and she agreed with me that it is unlikely to be old stock (her first thought, like mine, was that your chemist had been able to got hold of some old stock).
Lets hope that it filters through to the rest of us very soon.
Moggie x
It doesn't help with the mag stearate problem though 
No but trying to find T4 without this is almost impossible - as impossible as getting your GP or endo to even look at it being a problem as the only alterntive would be the liquid, which I have already had a no on due to cost.
Dont know if you read the link on Rod's post. I was really interested to learn that Magnesium Stearate is known to reduce absorption which makes me wonder how much of my 112.5mcg's is actually lost with this problem and how much I would need if they took the stearate out.
I find it unbelievable that this filler is used just so that their machinery can run smoothly.
Moggie x
So sorry RedApple, why I thought the mag stearate post was Rod's I dont know. That's what you get for trying to look after 4 grandchildren and participate on the site at the same time - I'm sure I used to be able to multi task.lol.
Moggie x
Hi I live in Nottinghamshire Burton Joyce. NG14 5 if that helps you. My chemist 2 months ago had to get in Mercury Pharma for me. There are 2 patients in the village on this and strangely the GP asked me on Monday if I was having difficulties. Then Hey ho the local chemist has them for my latest prescription. Boots did say should be back Dec 2013 Then again maybe our Pharmacist has been scouring everywhere for the 2 of us. Must leave a message for the other one to contact me if they wish.
Thanks for that.
Moggie x
No problem perhaps you should try Boots as they are a Nottingham based company and have lots of branches to bombard
Will do - first thing Monday morning.
Moggie x
However Boots have their own-brand levothyroxine (Almus - which is, I think, just Actavis), so they are possibly not so desperate to push any other products. Though they do, indeed, handle Mercury Pharma products.
They are also now 45% owned by Walgreens of the USA.Not at all sure how much power is left in Nottingham.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allia...
Rod
RedAppleAdministrator
Almus is the name Boots use on their own packaging of generic medicines. Boots don't actually make the medicines themselves. If you get anything from Boots that has the Almus name on it, take a look at the PIL itself to find out who the actual manufacturer is. In the case of 50mcg and 100mcg levothyroxine tablets, as Rod said, the manufacturer is usually Actavis.
The main Thyroid UK website is a useful source of info about thyroid med ingredients etc
RedAppleAdministrator
Thanks Aps, it's all a bit of a mystery isn't it. I also would have assumed that this was old stock, but the expiry date that Meki has quoted does seem to suggest otherwise. It seems unlikely that old stock being dispensed today would still have almost a two year shelf life to run.
Do you happen to know the expiry date of the last lot that your pharmacist supplied you with?
Hi,,, I too contacted them other day and got exactly same reply. they told me that the generic is totally identical to eltroxin so I said well why do you make the eltroxin and charge more for it,,, no reply to that. I've had many people tell me they feel they're not identical and my own symptoms would suggest the same.
Ian,
I don't think there is any mystery to that. If you were able to sell something at two prices simply by changing the packaging, wouldn't you be tempted to flog as much as you could in the "expensive" pack?
The mystery is how and why they have managed to have a different product license for 50 and 100 dosages when they are MP. And how they can continue to supply the MP packaged form when the Eltroxin packaged form is unavailable.
Rod
my honest answer is no I wouldn't do that at all,, but then again I have strong sense of morals and fair play. I still hold to the fact these 2 are not fully identical,,
I want to make it quite clear that Amdipharm Mercury Pharma is a different legal entity to Goldshield. Although as far as we are concerned, it appears that Goldshield renamed itself Mercury Pharma then was merged with Amdipharm.
Then I'll post a historic news report:
thelawyer.com/sfo-lambasted...
Rod
Will see if we can get an 'official' response on this on Monday...
L
x
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK
The listed ingredients and manufacturer of Eltroxin and MP Levothyroxine are indeed identical. This is why it is perplexing that some people seem to perceive a difference.
(In the 25 mcg dosage, even the product licence is identical.)
Rod
I believe they source the ingredients differently. With the Eltroxin ingredients being of higher quality. That way they can say they are manufactured in exactly the same factory and the same way because that would be true. However, it would explain we get different reactions between the two drugs.
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK
Interesting that the product license for MP levothyroxine 25 mcg tablets is identical to that for 25 mcg Eltroxin. But the P/Ls for MP 50 & 100 mcg tablets are different. However, as we are not privy to the details of these PLs, we don't know what differences might exist, if any!
lynmynottPartnerThyroid UK
Hi Everyone, I wrote to the MHRA a month ago saying that AmCo will only say the problem is technical and received this response last week:
Dear Ms Mynott,
Thank you for your enquiry and please accept our apologies that we have not yet provided you with a full response.
We are in ongoing discussions with the company regarding their products and these discussions include the issues you have raised.
Due to the nature of these discussions and their complexity we may not be in a position to supply you with a full response until mid-November. However, we will endeavour to reply to you before this time if at all possible.
Thank you again for raising your concerns with us, and we thank you for your patience.
As soon as they contact us again, I'll let you know what's going on! 
RedAppleAdministrator
Meki, Can you describe the box that this batch of Eltroxin is in please? Does it still have the name Goldshield on it, or something different?
yes the Goldshield name is in the top left corner. On the side it quotes PL 10972/0032
POM 10133/CN/C Product Licence holder Golsshiled Group t/a Goldshield Pharmaceuticals Croyddon CR00XT batch No 80454 Hope that helps
Thanks, and what's the box colour?
And are you absolutely sure the expiry year is 2015? It couldn't be 2013?
Sorry for the questions but just trying to make sense of this!
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