Today I got one of the Boots parmacists (an English branch) to check the cheapest price of Liothyronine that can be acquired through the NHS. The price she gave me was £329.20 for one pack. That was the cheapest!!!!!
I had explained that in Scotland someone had managed to get Sandoz Liothyronine through a Boots chemist, but according to Boots head office, the Scottish NHS is a different organisation from the English one, and that can't be done in England.
Amazing!!!!!!
Interestingly, before making the phonecall, she looked up what they can get in a big catalogue, and there is a Boots brand for about £98. The NHS doesn't use that though.
What a mess!!!!!
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dolphin5
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If you can get it! Boots told me that they can't get it, and the it must be a Scottish thing as they are different from the England NHS.
I'm waiting for a response from my local Pharmacy - not Boots. I spoke to them this afternoon to follow up on a request a couple of months ago. At the time, the pharmacist couldn't find Sandoz and could only find the usual Concordia price.
I'm going to nip back shortly with the list that went out in the ITT (Facebook) campaign document re stopping over-the-counter drugs and T3. It may give him more options to look up.
Boots and Lloyds get locked into their own supply chain. It may be better to go to independent pharmacies. If your prescription is for Sandoz your independent pharmacy can obtain it via IDIS or another wholesaler in this link thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/treatm...
Well, I've handed over the list of prices around the world, and the pharmacy wholesalers, and my local pharmacist seems to be looking forward to having another go at finding a more reasonable price.
Sheer, bumbling, hide-bound, rules-proscribed ineptitude! If someone is being held up by a highwayman and there are armed friends nearby who could intervene, it doesn't seem logical to quietly hand over the purse!
Love your passion and eloquence! Still think there is more to this than meets the eye. Surely by now the health minister is aware how comparatively cheaply T3 can be bought elsewhere and indeed folk are doing this and in many instances medicating themselves. A sham, absolutely shocking that this dilemma is raging on with no apparent overt discussion and hope of a resolution.
Yes but please, someone, anyone must know. Whatever the answer to an apparently simple question l would guess it inevitably involves subterfuge, cloak and dagger shenanigans, much intrigue and possibly a touch of immoral you scratch my back .............. A one size fits all medication is a non starter, even commoner garden pain relief comes in small, medium and large!
The official line is that the price increased in response to UK requirements for improved quality - Concordia say that this has been an expensive process. Personally, I've been taking T3 bout in Greece for 1 Euro (a pack of 30x25mcg) and the quality seems fine to me!!!!!
I agree. My Concordia NHS T3 had a shelf life of one month, the tablets were tiny and crumbled easily, and rattled around in a plastic pot. The German T3 I now buy will last for 18 months, tablets are large and easy to break and come in proper blister packs. Around 10EUR for the same number of tablets as the Concordia £329 pack. Also, I feel better on it. I don't know how the NHS and pharmaceutical company bosses sleep at night.
I've just had some Thybon20Henning (20mcg tablets) delivered from mycare.de mycare.de/en/online-kaufen/... I sent a letter in English wih my prescription to say what I wanted (not signed for as it goes to a PO box.) Then I used their online order form- it' s in German but just the usual- name, address, etc. After 2 or 3 days they sent me an automated email. It's in German too, but it just tells you to pay, and gives their bank details. You have to add 17EUR for delivery. My T3 arrived within a week of payment.
rosemaryanne17, There's some information on sources for T3 (with prescription) from outside the UK on the main Thyroid UK website here thyroiduk.org/tuk/treatment...
No point whatsoever. Also, it's not clear that it is better quality anyway! It's just the most expensive T3 in the world!!!! Maybe not something to be proud of. When I was a civil servant, people were very keen on getting the best unit price for everything. That's something the NHS seems to have overlooked!
Thank you for this information Dolphin5. Sorry call me syndical but I smell a rat. There must be far more important people than me with a vested interest asking this question?
I have lived and worked in many non democratic countries where issues of human rights and transparency on many levels are major issues. I simply ponder on the meaning of democracy when so many folk have endured the removal of T3 from their treatment and there appears to be no valid or explainable reason for it in the UK.
I hadn't heard of it before. The pharmacist just said "it's our own brand" and she showed me the listing in her book. I can only assume that it doesn't meet those magically exacting standards that Concordia apparently meet.
I do wonder what the Concordia T3 pills are like in Canada - since Concordia is a Canadin company. I believe that Canadians pay about a quarter of the price we pay here. Do they have a sub-standard product, or maybe a bargain price????
Walgreen Boots Alliance is the overall company - but I have no idea how the bits relate and operate.
The issue I see is licensing. They certainly could be listing a USA product but I'd be surprised if it were acceptable for it to be branded as "Boots" - that would surely make it a UK product - not a special import?
There's far too much I don't know and don't understand.
Pharmacies are supposed to supply UK licensed products where they exist. Only if they do not exist, or there is some other special feature are they freed to supply unlicensed products.
I had a reply from the person who was getting Sandoz T3 on the NHS. She now gets a French brand instead, so it looks as if we must all forget Sandoz. I'm still waiting for a reply from my local pharmacist.
MIMS is still showing the price as £258.20, and that's consistent with the comment the pahrmacist made when I picked mine up last week : mims.co.uk/drugs/endocrine/...
I don't think so. When I picked up 4 boxes of T3 last week, the pharmacist made a comment about it being the best part of £1k. I showed him the BTA document comparing the costs in the UK, France and Germany and he couldn't believe it.
Can we not just get the name and address of the bloke or woman responsible for the price hike published on here then we can all go round his place and ask why the hike, should be fun, i'll go first.
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