Mercury Pharma 25mcg shortage? Which alternative should I try?

[mountaingoat83]

Hello, I take 75-100mcg of MP made up of 25s, and wondered if other people are really struggling to get hold of these? I usually get mine from Boots, but they've changed supplier and only have Wockhardt now. I tried this one a few years ago and didn't get on well with it. I really don't want to change brands, but I've tried 3 other pharmacies in the last week and none of them have it. I was offered Teva in Tesco yesterday, but the pharmacist even said that he's not impressed with it (his mum has thryoid disease). He was saying it will be very difficult to get MP now, because other brands are much cheaper for the NHS. I'm pretty stressed out about this as I've been doing mostly ok on it.

Does anyone with more experience than me know whether this is likely to be a long-term thing? And if so has anyone successfully changed from MP to another brand?

Many thanks in advance x

[mischa]

You could try an independent chemist. I too used to use Boots for MP but switched to a local chemist who does supply MP for both T4 and T3 for me.

[mountaingoat83 in reply to mischa]

Thank you, I’ve tried two independents so far. I will keep trying, it’s what the pharmacist said about the cost to the NHS that’s concerning me for the longer term.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Cost charged to NHS for various different dose sizes - per pack of 28 tablets

100mcg - increased this month from 97p to £1.03

75mcg (Teva only) - £2.73

50mcg - increased this month from 98p to £1.03

25mcg - increased this month from £1.55 to £1.63

So 25mcg is significantly more expensive

Liothyronine increased this month from £204.39 to £206.7

[mountaingoat83 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you for the info.

[phobicgirl]

I use MP and get mine from Morrisons . Might help

🧚‍♂️

[mountaingoat83 in reply to phobicgirl]

Thank you, I’ll try them

[silverfox7]

When I was taking MP several years ago now I had all my dose in 25's. I saw the costs and thought I would also ask for 100's as my dose was 100/125. Things went a bit haywire so I tried, over a few months, some variations and found that 4x 25 was not evivalent to 100 mcg. So decided a better option may be to get all in a higher dose and use a pill cutter. But what ever you do keep to one brand if on a stable dose and retest after 6 weeks to see if dose needs tweaking.

[mountaingoat83 in reply to silverfox7]

Thanks for this. I take 75 5x per week and 100 2x. I used to just take 75 and found I felt better on three 25s rather than 50 + 25 so I’ve just stuck with that approach. It’s such a minefield!! My levels are all over the place at the best of times so I try to minimise the variables.

[silverfox7 in reply to mountaingoat83]

Sensible plan!