I’m on the above T3, I picked up my new prescription today from the chemist, looked under the label they had put on over the container as wanted to check something in the info, only to notice this date! Should I take them back?
Liothyronine 20 microgram : I’m on the above T... - Thyroid UK
Liothyronine 20 microgram
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Nellups
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Yes. If you need to start them. They’ll probably be ok. But I would take them back. They shouldn’t be supplying outdated meds. My last ones of this brand were 09 2020. That was a few months ago.
I checked my other bottle for last month and it’s the same! 🥺
I’d complain. They’re supposed to check that. Hence why the label should covers it.
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK
I am not sure what the best approach is.
I do not think it right that you have received a medicine which is already beyond its expiry date. (One of my pet peeves is when information like this is hidden, even when it isn't out of date!) But I wouldn't want to risk taking it back and not immediately getting a replacement.
I think I would start by ringing them and asking what they are doing.
I wouldn't take them back as it is difficult enough to get and any replacement may take time to source. I would however make sure that future prescriptions are put in early enough to allow you time to refuse expired tablets.
1. Report the Pharmacy for Intent to Deceive, and knowingly endangering life, and see what happens....
In the meantime tell your GP what’s happened, and get a new prescription to take to an alternative Pharmacy, because you’ll no longer be popular at the culprit Pharmacy.
Don’t be ridiculous, think urself lucky u can get it !!!!!! So many can’t out of date won’t be an issue
Can of worms if u do
I would return them and ask for a replacement ASAP. They have absolutely no business to give you out of date medication. If they do not have it, ask for your prescription and take it elsewhere. If they cannot do that, because your prescription has been marked as used, insist they get a new one from your GP. I have always found that Liothyronine loses potency easily, as it gets older.
Complaining is the worst thing u can do , lucky to get it .
The pharmacy should not be giving out of date medication. Prescribing has nothing to do with them. They are there to deal with fulfilling a prescription, not to decide that a patient is lucky to have it.
We are not a third world country , if it was a year out of date then maybe , but honest mistake but far better to be thankful than to criticise. I would suggest the bigger picture on this issue .
Thinking your "lucky to get it," will, sooner than later become worse & worse. Are you, perhaps, in some way, tied to the pharmaceutical industry?
Ha ha no not at all , I rely on it. I just feel we are so lucky to live in this great country and so many people don’t appreciate the fact we are so luck with our health care . T3 is so hard to get now , wrongly and uk being ripped off I agree. But where you can be lucky enough to get it , as most doctors will not prescribe due to cost , we should be thankful for where and when we get it , even if slightly out of date . Can’t argue that it’s not ideal, but not a major issue . More things to worry about going on in this world atm.
Nobody is wrong in their opinions, but come on let’s be reasonable.
With some people reasonable is not in their vocabulary; for example: ignorant doctors who do not know, realize or care, if they are ignorant "doctors" must be, eventually, told the truth or you are doing them a disfavor, as well as yourself, and it will effect your health negatively. Speak the truth no matter how hard it seems for, in the end, it will be rewarded.
I do not usually get annoyed but you are talking nonsense. The product loses efficacy when out of date. That is why there is a use by date.
I agree not ideal , but come on . I rely on it to , iv ran into slightly out of date issues with no adverse effects, but yes if 4 to 6 months out of date then of course . But that’s just me .
Just lucky for some we don’t have to pay for it ........... many have to . The world is not in a good place atm . Stay safe and be kind and reasonable.
Sorry, you still do not get it. The question is not whether one is kind and reasonable. It is that if the Liothyronine is losing strength, the patient will become unwell. Very simple cause and effect...
in reply to Hennerton
When the patient information tells you not to take Liothyronine Sodium Tablets after the expiry date,there's presumably a reason for it.If you ignore this and it makes you ill, on your own back be it. I can just hear myGP......" Can't you read "?
Covering the expiry date is bad practice.
Best to always examine the contents given to you before leaving the pharmacy ,as recommend here .
Hennerton in reply to
I think you probably meant this to go to Richard, not me? I am fervently against out of date meds!
in reply to Hennerton
I apologise.It was however,just a general opinion really.
buggles84 in reply to
It's all about profit......these tablets will be okay for a couple of years.
I've found that this brand of L-T3 loses potency over time, especially after it has been opened. I would take them back but hold onto them until they have the fresh ones to give you. They or the wholesaler possibly stand to lose a lot of money destroying expensive tablets but that's not your problem. They should not dump out of date medicine on patients.
Yes
The Pharmacist has been very careless imho. When I worked for a hospital pharmacy we would fill out a form or put on the computer the batch number and the expiry date so we knew when drugs went out of date. I am amazed they did not check this before they dispensed it. Was it a small pharmacy?
Not at all big chain xxxxx
I work for a podiatrist and we always check expiry dates especially on local anesthetics
So for this company I was very surprised going back today !
There take u off it if ur not carful.
Not much out of date . You’d be mad to push this !!
No I’m not why should I receive sub standard medication! It’s sorted now anyway and the chemist were mortified it happened
SlowDragonAdministrator
Yes, definitely. At £163 per pot, these should be supplied with long sell by date
Common issue with Mercury Pharma T3...palming off old stock
As jimh111 says.....they tend to loose potency the older they are and especially once pot has been opened
Morningside healthcare T3 is Blister packed.
WOW £163, that's incredible. Here in Sweden, we pay the actual cost of medication up to a maximum, then it's free for the rest of that year. At the current rate of exchange, my Liothyronin 20 mikrogram cost £19.40 per 100.
There was only one UK supplier and no price regulation
Price went up over 6000%
Now three suppliers and price dropped from £258 per 28 tablets.....obviously still ludicrously over priced
Hence such struggle to get prescribed in UK
Media coverage
thyroidtrust.org/media-cove...
Shocking, isn't it.
I'm in Finland and my first batch of Takeda T3 20 mcg cost me just short of 21 euros, full price.
We have to pay extra for a special permit on top, though, because no manufacturer has actually gone through with official licencing of liothyronine as a compound.
The 5 mcg variant costs over a hundred though.
yes, definitely
Take them back and get in date medication.
Take them back to the pharmacy. When I worked in the dispensary our stock was checked all the time, any out of date stock was taken off the shelves and certainly never given out to a customer.
Thank you everyone going back today will let you know the outcome
I had my last prescription in dribs and drabs as I'm given 6 months at a time and they would have expired if they gave them all to me at the same time. There is a later batch than that that expires in September so they should be able to get you some
Yes the date should have been checked and I ask dispensary staff not to put the label over the date .regards Sheena
Are the Pharmaceutical companies reacting to the reduced demand from the NHS by producing less?
I was regularly given out of date t3 at hospital I always refused them and said I expected new stock. What really annoys me is nhs pays more than any other country for t3 but are happy to be supplied out of date stock! I can just imagine someone trying to supply asda with last year's fruit and vegetables, wouldn't be accepted but because the nhs is profligate with tax payers money they don't care about value for money. My t3 in France always new stock with 2year expiry......rant over.
This happened to me too. I took them back and they were exchanged straight away with profuse apologies x
In current circumstances I would start using them straight away and store them properly, they are still close to expiry date and will probably be fine...it's the apparent deception that would annoy me.
Raise this with your pharmacist and make sure it isn't repeated. Having said that in the days to come we may just have to be thankful to have T3 at all!
Hi,
A bit sneaky of the Pharmacist to put the label over the date, or was it by mistake? This happened to me on more than one occasion,which is why I started going to another Pharmacist. I suppose it's a lot of money to lose if they are going to be thrown away.When I had my thyroid removed 20 plus years ago and went on Liothyronine as I wasn't doing very well on Thyroxine alone, there was only one brand of Liothyronine, Mercury Pharma.It used to come to the Pharmacist in big bottles, and they would put a months supply in small brown plastic bottles.They had no date on them, so you didn't know if they were in date or not. No wonder they didn't seem to work very well sometimes!
Now I am on Morningside, which are blister packs and usually at least 6 months in advance.
Anyway, I would mention it to the Pharmacist, whether or not you decide to use them this time, and certainly check the date on them in future BEFORE leaving the pharmacy. I have tried going back after getting home and finding they are wrong, but they won't change them after you have left the pharmacy, and say you need to get another prescription.
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK
That was why my response was rather lower-keyed than might otherwise have written.
Ordinary versus extra-ordinary circumstances.
The tablets could, of course, be sub-potent but it is unlikely they will be anything worse than a few percent down on an in-date supply.
Right to raise the issue. Wrong for them to have been dispensed.
Well went back spoke to the pharmacist on duty she was mortified that this had happened and not just once, she took them back and has ordered new to arrive tomorrow, and asked if I would like the head pharmacist to phone me tomorrow and apologize . I said no there was no need as long as it was replaced that was fine.
Thank you for all of your responses
Definitely take them back ... that’s not good ...
YES resoundingly they are getting paid an awful lot for your prescription and it is a reportable drug error .
If it was me, I would go into the pharmacy and ask to talk to the pharmacist privately as I had concerns about my prescription. Politely state my concerns and listen to his/her explanation and advice. Then in future I would go to a different pharmacy if at all possible.
I would return them
It is being investigated according to the pharmacy, which they by law have to do
Of course take them back, they are out of date!!!
What I have learnt to do (in Australia) is that when I want my script for T3 filled, I go to the pharmicist and ask then to call the supplier to check the expiry date first before I order. Usually my doctor gives me a years' supply (3 lots of 100 tabs each= $AUD 120) and then I always make sure the expiry date is at least one year away.
Never give out of date medicines out to people. If they were out of date when the pharmacy received them then they should have been returned.
It would have been nice if they let you keep the expired bottle and then just gave you a new bottle with a much later expiry date.
Considering how hard it is to obtain T3 medication, it would have been nice for you to have back up. Expired thyroid medication pills tend to be effective for a little while longer after their expiry date, depending on how you store them. They’ll be a little weaker but it’s better than nothing.
well I dont think they could do that as it is like having 2 prescriptions dispensed then -they have to account for them dont they whether they are out of date or not
Well, they could have accounted for the first one by being honest and reporting they initially gave the patient an expired bottle so it has been disposed of but then let her decide if she’d like to chuck it or keep it. Expired thyroid medication isn’t harmful if the person knows it’s expired. They would have had to dispose of it, any way.
I see your point by what you’re saying, though, and how they’re going to be very strict and stringent about that in case anything goes wrong...and they wouldn’t want to inadvertently give someone a freebie and have their profit go down the drain 😄.
I was given tablets from this dated batch, when my husband pointed out that the date would run out during the period they were to cover the pharmacist said “Oh, the date doesn’t matter, they will still be fine to take”. So, I continued with them, on his advice, and all was ok through February, but towards the end of the month I started to have recurrent back ache, which I put down to other things, but it came more frequently and then I found my other muscles beginning to really ache and feel tired. Eventually I remembered these tablets were out of date and I switched to a fresh supply my husband had recently picked up. Low and behold , within a week all aches and pains had stopped. I still have a complete box with this date unopened, such a waste! We can’t change to another pharmacist, as none of the others will order them and my husband doesn’t want to upset this pharmacist.
2 months , did u read the label ? and they would be fine , 6 months would of course be unacceptable.
The label says 19 01 2020.
It is now 24 03 2020.
And, assuming one tablet a day, it will be three months by the time the pot is finished.
On what basis do you think that two months is OK but six months isn't? Why not, whatever time period you think is acceptable, just add another couple of months because they won't be very much worse after that extra time?
The system is set up with the intention of being safe within the printed time. After that, we don't know. Nor does the pharmacist. That is the issue. It is intended to ensure that the medicines are always within acceptable potency and safety. Unless there is some technological development such that the packaging discloses whether storage condtions have been acceptable, I think we simply have to take account of printed dates.
They are cheap to manufacture, the licence holder makes the obscene profit. The wholesaler and pharmacist could lose a lot of money but that's their problem.
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