Changing brand of generic Liothyronine

[Ed2000]

Hi,

I recently noticed that Morningside 20mcg Liothyronine worked better for me than Teva 20mcg Liothyronine. I asked my pharmacist if I could have those instead and she said I’d need to get them named on the prescription as they were ‘more expensive’ and suggested they wouldn’t get fully paid for them. As I never like to approach my GP surgery mentioning the ‘L’ word without very good reason (given their enthusiasm for its removal) I was wondering if this is something likely to pee off my GP or won’t really matter to them? Also, might it be better to just ask another pharmacist - are they any more likely to supply Morningside or would they give the same answer? Advice appreciated ….

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

The NHS Drug Tariff prices are the same for both - £71.90. But there is no shown indicative price for Morningside whereas Teva is shown as £245.29.

You might have to click on up and down arrows to display the details.

bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/lioth...

However, we do not know how much the pharmacy would have to pay for each product - only what they can claim.

Roma hard capsules would be less expensive to the pharmacy and in terms of the reimbursement by the NHS to the pharmacy - £55 for 5 or 20 microgram capsules.

[Ed2000 in reply to helvella]

Hi, That’s very interesting - the pharmacist only said that Teva costs them £60 but that Morningside would cost £90. I hadn’t considered that pharmacies might have to pay different rates to acquire the items.

Thank you.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Ed2000]

I wish I understood how the systems worked.

There are fragments of information, but not enough for me (as a total outsider) to see what happens and why.

[Ed2000 in reply to helvella]

I actually emailed the surgery and they have agreed to put it on the prescription. Interestingly, Superdrug told me that as of today 20mg of Morningside is a lot more expensive than either 5 or 10mcg - the 20mg has recently been added to the ‘special list’ due to manufacturing problems possibly and so will cost them, I think they said, about £170, but she said things go on and off this list all the time. Yes, I too find all this quite confusing.

[Lalatoot]

I get Morningside on my NHS prescription without it being named. Boots are happy to provide either it or Teva and now they know I prefer Morningside they always supply it.I would try another pharmacy.

[Ed2000 in reply to Lalatoot]

Hi,Thank you for that information - as my GP is clueless and longs to get me off Liothyronine I may just try Boots this afternoon.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Just write on top of prescription

Brand xxxx please

Small independent pharmacies are often more helpful