T3, Billy has uncovered yet another surprise.

[Airmed]

Go Billy Kenber, my favourite journalist. Report in The Times yesterday. Am going to send all articles Billy has written on this matter to Sarah Wolloston MP today. Am missing the first report when Billy first exposed the issue. Can any one send it to me please.

[Hidden]

Thanks for sharing this. Here's the first report: imgur.com/gallery/U42vD

[Airmed in reply to Hidden]

Thank you very much girlafraid. Just scouring yesterday's paper to see if anymore news from BK then will send whole lot to Sarah Wollaston MP

[Carriebaby]

I can't read it even with my glasses on as it won't expand 😢

[Hidden in reply to Carriebaby]

If you're on a computer, right click to save the image and then open the file.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

You should be able to zoom in using your browser too.

[Airmed in reply to Carriebaby]

Hi carriebaby will PM image if I can see if that works.

[humanbean in reply to Carriebaby]

To increase the magnificiation on any webpage, including images, try the following :

Hold down the Ctrl key (bottom left of your keyboard), then press the + (plus) key just once. The page should increase in size. Press the + key again (still holding down the Ctrl key) - with each press the page gets bigger. When it is the size you want, just release the Ctrl key.

To reduce something in size do the above but with the - (minus) key instead of the + (plus).

To change the size back to what it was originally, hold down the Ctrl key, and then press the 0 (zero) key, then release the keys.

Increasing the size of an image may help, but there are no guarantees. A poor quality image is still a poor quality image, even if you make it bigger!

[helvella Administrator in reply to Carriebaby]

Price rise loophole was approved by Whitehall, drug company claimed

Billy Kenber Investigations Reporter

A drug company allegedly told potential investors that Department of Health officials had approved its strategy of exploiting a loophole in NHS rules. The Times has learnt.

It comes as government moves to change its rules to require companies to justify huge price rises for drugs.

Last week an investigation by this newspaper revealed how four companies have made a fortune at taxpayers’ expense by buying the rights to old. off- and increasing by up to 12.500. During a meeting with a US Hedge fund last September John Beighton. the chief executive of AMCO. one of the four companies. is said to have explained how this method allowed it to implement price rises with “no restrictions” because generic drugs with no brand not subject to a profit cap. He said that the Department of Health “absolutely under- stands" what the company was doing in side-stepping the profit cap it is claimed.

The Times has been told that Mr Beighton said that the government did not mind because it believed the price rises provided an incentive for rival generic manufacturers to enter the market. AMCo remains the sole supplier of many of the drugs in part because of the time it takes to obtain a rival licence from the medicines regulator, the relatively small size of the market and difficult manufacturing processes.

Patients taking one such medicine. Liothyronine. had their prescriptions stopped by doctors after the price increased from 16p a tablet to £9.22 under AMCo and one of its premerger predecessors. Liothyronine cost NHS England £20 million last year. Excluding hospital prescriptions, compared with £3.4 million in 2010.

Responding to Mr Beighton’s claims, a spokesman for the Department of Health said: "This is categorically untrue — we would newer encourage any manufacturer to de-brand their products with the aim of implementing.

The meeting with the US hedge fund came shortly after the Canadian company Concordia Healthcare announced that it had agreed to buy AMCo in a which valued the company at £2.3 billion. By dropping the brand name of a drug companies are able to petition the government to move a medicine from category C in the NHS drug tariff. which is subject to a profit cap. to category A, which is not.

Category A medicines are priced on the basis of information from two wholesalers. AAH and Alliance Healthcare, and two named manufacturers. In cases where a supplier faces no or limited competition and the two named manufacturers do not make it. The drugs are priced on the basis of prices from AAH and Alliance. which add a margin onto the supplier’s price.

The Times understands that negotiations are under way between the government and the industry to change how the NHS reimbursement price for category A drugs are calculated.

Please accept this was largely automated and is bound to have some mistakes in it.

[shaws Administrator]

Thanks again for this post.

Amco (Mercury Pharma) also produced the only Brand named Levothyroxine called Eltroxin. Then removed it and members who'd been on it for 25 years or more were now unwell on the generic. MP did say it would be coming back but hasn't reappeared so far.

I myself took Eltroxin for a time with T3 combination but when I could only get generic levo I developed symptoms so although they said that the generic was 'exactly' the same - for many patients it wasn't.

healthunlocked.com/search/e...

I also found a batch of their liothyronine (on T3 only then) caused me unpleasant symptoms and initially you cannot figure out why you have these 'new' symptoms but when I changed the T3, so the symptoms also disappeared.

[Hidden in reply to shaws]

This stuff? imgur.com/RgKWtjS

I've been feeling exhausted since I started these a few weeks ago.

[shaws Administrator in reply to Hidden]

If you've only been on it a few weeks you have to gradually work up to a dose which relieves all of your symptoms.

It surprised me when first on levothyroxine how something which was supposed to make you feel much better - in fact made me so much worse I could barely move.

Do you know the procedure to follow for your next blood test which should be in around 6 to 8 weeks?

[Hidden in reply to shaws]

Yeah, the doctor told me to repeat a thyroid function test in 8 weeks. I was on 150mcg before my dose was increased and now there's times where I feel as tired as I did when I was first diagnosed!

I've got a bottle of Thyroid-S which I'm eventually going to switch to.

[shaws Administrator in reply to Hidden]

Some do fine on levothyroxine, so give it a chance. Also adding some T3 to T4 (levo) also works for some..

[Hidden in reply to shaws]

I think 11 years is sufficient time!

[shaws Administrator in reply to Hidden]

More than enough time, so now it's the next step. To recover your health.

When you try Thyroid-S it should be a straight swop-over from levo.

[LindaC]

Wow! Thanks for this Airmed... good to know there's someone out there chasing these beggars!!

[Airmed in reply to LindaC]

Will send congratulatory email again to Billy. I agree with you He's doing a great job.

[LindaC in reply to Airmed]

Yes that would be great and appreciated... most people like feedback that their efforts are worthwhile. Maybe I'll have a read of them all over this weekend and have a think what to do. All good stuff and boy do we need a break somewhere. Take care and be well

[helvella Administrator]

The Department of Health understanding something is very different to the DoH saying "go for it, an excellent idea that we wholeheartedly endorse". John Beighton appears to be trying to use weasel words. No, not trying, actually using them.

As AMCo doesn't make anything, perhaps they would let us know how much they pay Custom Pharma, the actual manufacturers, to make it? If that price were more than 16p per tablet, I would be absolutely amazed. Almost as amazed as if AMCo actually told us this cost.

[Airmed in reply to helvella]

Helvella, I think we should go to the same contract manufacturers ask them to make same, should be cheaper as have all the equipment, flood market with Liothyronine cos we can and watch with glee as the investors in these funds start loosing their, yachts, mansions, second and third homes and fast cars. Oh somebody mentioned Eltroxin manufactured to the old method so better ask for that too.

[LindaC in reply to Airmed]

Go for it...

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Airmed]

If AMCo liothyronine is made by Custom Pharmaceuticals as helvella says, then this is the very same company that manufactured Tertroxin, the branded version of liothyronine that we used to have here in the UK. Changing a medicine name from branded to unbranded does not of itself change the level of manufacturing difficulty!

If Custom Pharma can no longer manufacture liothyronine at a sensible price, then why is that when so many European manufacturers can do it?

It would be extremely interesting to know how much Custom Pharma are being paid to make this medicine today, versus how much they were paid when it was branded Tertroxin. I would not exclude the manufacturing company from this profiteering scandal!

[helvella Administrator in reply to RedApple]

And it still has the name "Tertroxin" on the Patient Information Leaflet - so absolutely agree with RedApple.

[nightingale-56 in reply to helvella]

Hi Helvella, so should we be complaining to Custom Pharmaceuticalswhen things go wrong? Who actually holds the formula and is responsible for the outcome? Do you know?

[helvella Administrator in reply to nightingale-56]

Responsibility lies fair and square with MercuryPharma/AMCo/Amdipharm/Concordia.

If a garage gets your car resprayed by some chap using a can of hairspray in a back alley, the garage is responsible to you. They can then go chasing the chap in the alley...

[nightingale-56 in reply to helvella]

I see exactly. Just like buying in a shop then. Thanks Helvella.

[Butterfly65]

I'm using a tablet & just discovered that If I hold down on the pic for a few seconds it gives you the option to enlarge ! - Well done Billy Kenner & well done Airmed

[LindaC]

Snake Oil Merchant has now taken on a whole new meaning Wow!