Cannot obtain a supply of NON TEVA levothyroxine

[penrydi]

Hi I have been prescribed 75mcg of levothyroxine(on a repeat prescription) and have been obtaining a supply of loose non Teva(mercury pharma) for the last 3 years. I have found this month that the pharmacy I am with now only stocks Teva products. I have also discovered that all the pharmacies in my area now only stock Teva. I am at a loss now as to where to find a supply as even my surgery and pharmacist have indicated that it is my problem and I have to somehow find a supply or have the Teva and suffer the side effects which include a heart flutter fatigue nausea and mood changes.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Roy

[bantam12]

Pharmacies can and do order other brands all the time, whether yours are willing to is another matter ! You need to ask your GP to specify on the prescription which brand you can tolerate then the Pharmacy should order it in.

[penrydi in reply to bantam12]

Hi my surgery have said that they cannot specify any brand name on a prescription and that the pharmacy are not obliged to stock a brand that I can tolerate. Thanks for your reply

[Sparklingsunshine in reply to penrydi]

Hi well that sounds like bunkum. I had a bad time on Northstar Levo, tried Accord, which I do tolerate and my GP was happy to put that on my prescription. It states Accord brand.

Also there are online pharmacies around like Pharmacy2U who accept NHS prescriptions electronically, in the usual way. They then post your meds out to you via Royal Mail. I used them for a number of years and they were pretty good. There are others around now as well.

Might be worth seeing if they offer non Teva Levo brands and change your pharmacy with the GP. You aren't restricted to pharmacies in your area that way.

[Sparklingsunshine in reply to penrydi]

Also I was on 75mcg for a while. You can either alternate between 50mcg and 100 every other day so it averages 75mcg or your GP can give you 42 Levo tablets and you can half the 50mcg. It sounds like your surgery is being unhelpful.

[thyreoidea in reply to penrydi]

I asked my surgery to specify the brands I want and it is written on the prescription, you could ask your doctor to prescribe 50’s and 25’s instead, it’s worth a try.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

How is your prescription written?

Teva are the only company that supply 75 tablets. If your prescription is written as 75, that is all they can supply. (Except if there is a shortage or some such issue.)

Go to Pharma Contacts in my document for how to contact manufacturers. It has repeatedly been shown to be the best way of getting an issue resolved.

Bear in mind, all pharmacies have to be able to supply a vast range of medicines. It is their choice to only stock Teva (if that is even true) but if a doctor wrote "Accord" or "Wockhardt", they would have to supply it.

helvella - Vade Mecum for Thyroid

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[Rocky]

I was also told this by my surgery. I dropped a letter off explaining my symptoms with changing brands of Levothyroxine. I also put in a copy of the Government paper that was brought out in May of this year. Link is below

gov.uk/drug-safety-update/l...

I had a call from the prescriptions at my surgery and the GP has sent a message to my pharmacy stating the brand that I need. I have also changed pharmacies again for the third time and have been told they understand patients needing certain brands as they can have reactions. It is an online pharmacy for my area and they deliver too. I was fobbed off by my surgery to start with and I don't always believe what they or the pharmacies say. My old pharmacy was still trying to get me Actavis Levothyroxine when it has been Accord since last year. It just shows how lazy and unwilling they are to help you and certainly not up to date with Levothyroxine brands !!

[elwins]

Boots supply me and they give me the same non Teva brand each month, she even changed one of the packets today because it was different to my usual brand. They have been very good to me.

[TaraJR]

I think Teva is the only company that do 75mcg tablets. So ask that your prescription is in 50mcg and 25 mcg tablets. Then you can have a non-Teva brand.

Use the government announcement on not switching levothyroxine brands - print it out to give to your surgery as they may not know this.

gov.uk/drug-safety-update/l...

[bladerunner370]

My doctor said she was not able to specify the make BUT could specify what not to use e.g. NOT TEVA.

[tattybogle in reply to bladerunner370]

NHS GP's ARE able to specify a particular brand on prescription. to say they can't is untrue .

However if just trying to avoid one brand eg Teva , it does allow for more flexibility if they state 'Not Teva ', rather than eg. 'Mercury Only' or 'Wockhardt only' etc.

If one particular brand is stated on the prescription , the pharmacy cannot dispense any other .. which narrows down the available options and so might lead to unnecessary hassle for everyone, if in fact any of the other non Teva brands would be acceptable.

[Izzie11]

A decade ago i was on 75mcg and akmus onky does 50 or 100mcg i was the prescribed 25mcg by mercury whi h didn't agree with me therefire i used 100mcg twice a week like mondays abd thursdays abd rest of the days 50 to balance abd it worked out. Maybe worth trying and keep a note if your blood test resukts to see what dose makes you feel better abd the leveks of tsh and t4. For instance in my case the lower tsh the less symptoms

Boots does other brands

Also if GP cannot write which they shoukd request to see an endocrinologist who can write it. But GP shoukd and meant to write the brand name on the prescription

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Izzie11]

An awful lot of us have never seen an endocrinologist. Hypothyroidism is usually regarded as a primary care disorder which does not need a referral.

[Izzie11 in reply to helvella]

Oh I see, that I didn't know as ive always seen endocrinologist since was overactive and then after treatment becane underactive but ince levels were more in the stable side was referred to GP to monitor regularly.

Over the years I've learnt to fight for my health as there were some dr who treated me based on lab report rather than how actually felt. Hence keep a copy of all my results abd monitored. I got help and advise from the British thyroid foundation which was very helpful.

With regards to letter as far as am aware if you react to a certain medication then GP is suposed to change the prescription and note on it a specific brand. One just have to push and not give up. I had to when GP surgery was taken over by a new management