TEMAG liothyronine by pharma (Broadwater Road Welwyn Garden City. Has anyone used it and how effective is it?

[mariolin]

Prescription read : liothyronine 10 mcg x30 for 1 month. So far so good,but it was dispensed in capsule form (I did not collect it myself) At present I prefer to split the dose which can't be done with the capsule. Has any one taken this brand, is it stronger than liothyronine in tablet form ? At the moment I am not ready to take 10 mcg in one go .I have contacted the chemist mean time. He said he will have to get the doctor to change the prescription. Wish I had been able to collect the meds personally

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Temag is a company that produces "specials" - various medicines not available as licensed medicines.

temagpharma.co.uk/

They have never before been mentioned here on HU so far as I remember - and site search doesn't find any either!

In that sense, they are not a brand - each patient's requirement will be made to order. I doubt anyone will be able to provide personal experience - though you might be lucky!

It looks most likely that you have been supplied with that because the only licensed product is the 20 mcg Mercury Pharma liothyronine product but the doctor prescribed at 10 mcg. Had the doctor prescribed 5 mcg (which seems to be what you would have preferred), then you could have received Pfizer/King Cytomel, Paddock liothyronine or one of the other USA makes of 5 mcg tablets.

(I don't know the costs of any of these for sure, but there is some evidence that both specials and imports are outrageously costly - possibly into hundreds of pounds. Your chances of getting 10 mcg capsules or 5 mcg tablets long-term are, I suspect, slim.)

There is information about some products here:

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/treatm...

Rod

[Clutter]

Have you checked the patient information leaflet to see whether it is a timed release capsule? You wouldn't need to split dose if it is.

[Jackie]

Hi the 10mcg strength is usually in capsule form. All T3 takes about 4 months to reach maximum. Retest, TSH, T4 and Free T3 after 4-6 weeks with any change in meds. Incidentally the capsules 10mcg are extremely expensive, most GP`s give a scrip for the more common 20 mcg, and we cut them.

Best wishes,

Jackie

[Duchy82]

You could open the capsule and take half of the powder it contains. Depending on what kind of machine it is encapsulated on it could be a 'slug' of powder which is quite compressed and easy to half although this is pointless if its a slow release capsule. (i know this as i work for a company that makes capsules for veterinary medicines we have both kinds of machines though so it could just be loose powder which makes it slightly more difficult).

[mariolin]

Thank you Rod for all your info on other brands of liothyronine and TEMAG lio 10 mcg capsules which were supplied in a glass bottle, no patient leaflet,but on the label it says

sugar free,so it does appear they are produced for a special patient requirement,but I am not diabetic! The chemist did not seem to know they are very expensive,but obtained them because the endocrinologist issued a prescription for 10mcg liothyronine as you said.

Having learnt that the only licenced liothyronine in UK is a 20 mcg tablet I contacted the endo secretary and was told the next prescription will be for 20 mcg,but I was not given

a satisfactory explanation why a 10 mcg was written up if she knew that only the 20 mcg tablet was licenced.

Sorry for my late reply and thanks again

Maria