Cost of T3

[knitwitty]

Having read so many posts about how difficult it is for many people to be prescribed T3 these days , I was just wondering why there doesn't seem to be a single lab that is willing to produce it for a nominal cost in the UK.

Is it prohibitively difficult or costly to produce?

The fact that other countries produce it cheaply would suggest otherwise.

It must be off patent now so I'm really struggling to understand why no one can produce it here for a nominal cost.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

NHS has, up until last year, had no legal say in what they are charged for any generic, out of patent, medications.

In theory competition between brands should hold or drive the price charged downwards. But companies owning single licence generics were able to exploit the market as there was no competition.

Since two new UK suppliers of Liothyronine came on to market late last year, the price has gone down......but only for a very few pounds

They only need to under cut each other by a £ or two. It will take a long time at that rate to push price back down from over £250 a pack of 28 tablets, to something akin to EU prices of £5-10 a packet of 28

New legislation passed into law last summer 2017 and is in place for Government to take steps to insist on price reduction, if a company or companies are considered to be abusing their position.

pharmaphorum.com/views-and-...

gabionline.net/Generics/Gen...

Action has happened on other drugs

gov.uk/government/news/cma-...

telegraph.co.uk/business/20...

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In France it costs around 3 euros per packet of 30 tablets and is made here.

In the UK I think the manufacturers have to be licensed by the NHS. They charge over the odds because they can, are greedy and the NHS is not fit for purpose on T3 and lets them get away with the high prices.

After all do you think that anyone in the commercial world would be ripped off like the NHS I don't think so, it's such a pity.