Pharmacist who has been dispensing my liothyronine says it is too expensive to continue.

[Mugs19]

I had a phone call this morning from the Pharmacist and she said it is costing her £20 more than the government allows for each prescription she dispenses.

I asked her if it was the suppliers who are charging too much or the drug company. She replied it was the supplier and that she would ring round and see what alternatives she could find but as my prescription specifies Teva it makes it more difficult, so she was informing me that I might have to accept another brand.

I told her that I am on Teva because it has no lactose in it. She asked me if I knew of another brand which was suitable. I couldn't think of any.

Panic has set in as it took me weeks to find another pharmacist who would dispense liothyronine when I had a huge prescription from my consultant to tide me over his enforced absence.

I cannot understand this as I have read on here that the price of liothyronine has been coming down and is now an amber drug rather than a red drug.

Please let me know anything relevant before I start a search for another pharmacist. This one has been very good to me in the past. The problem is they have dispensed the rest of the prescription and delivered it so I can't get it back and my GPs have recently informed me that they do not do paper prescriptions anymore.

This has happened in a week when everything is going wrong. It is so hard to have to start applyiing myself to yet another problem.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Mugs

The attached image from helvella 's document shows all UK brands of T3 and which contain lactose. It looks like there are 3 other brands that don't contain lactose that your pharmacist could substute for Teva. I don't know whether your GP would have to re-issue the prescription to specify a different brand.

UK T3

[Mugs19 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thankyou for such a speedy response. I don't know how I would survive without this site. Let's hope that the others are cheaper

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Mugs19]

The least expensive is Roma - but they are capsules which will almost certainly require a re-written prescription.

Roma capsules are reimbursed at Roma's list prices - £55 for 5 and 20 microgram, £65 for 10 microgram. If I have got my head round the system, that should avoid any issues with the cost to pharmacy.

[Mugs19 in reply to helvella]

Thankyou. That is useful info.