As I glumly predicted, following allergic reactions to several brands of levothyroxine, my GP has flat out refused to reissue a prescription for Brillpharma liquid levothyroxine. Cost. To get it installed as a regular prescription will require me going back to the hospital allergy department and making a fuss and get them to instruct GP.
GP have given me a paper prescription with a text message stating I should seek to find a brand 'that suits me'.
So as to jump through all the necessary boxes and tick all the necessary 'i's' (gives me more power to my elbow later) I am seeking to try wockhardt which is the only brand I haven't tried before. But after phoning 6 pharmacies (SE London) it seems that there really is a supply issue.
I got one very nice pharmacy who said they had supplies until last month and it looks like Teva have made a deal which means every one of his wholesalers has excess TEVA and no Wockhardt. Although he said it could change, but it's not looking good.
Curiously, 3 pharmacies have said Wockhardt also comes in 50mcg and 100mcg. My understanding was it only comes in 25mcg. I keep being corrected when I state this. Am I wrong?
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Alanna012
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Update: So one pharmacy says they can get it BUT I will have to get my prescription changed to 25mcg levothyroxine. Apparently I cannot take my 100mcg levothyroxine prescription and simply ask the chemist to give me 4 or however much Wockhardt. Is this what everyone else does?
Also he isn't certain he will be able to get it for me again.
Apparently there is a national shortage of all pharmaceutical meds throughout the UK and this is why they can no longer simply order in what you need. The suppliers get what they can (I have no idea how true this is) This is why (he says) GP's are reluctant to specify a particular brand on a prescription anymore, it is being tacitly discouraged due to pressure on suppliers and higher costs of getting supplies from Europe. No thought has been given to people with allergies to specific brands or other needs.
He also explained what is happening with Brillpharma and why my GP won't give me another prescription. Everytime a GP issues a prescription for BP they receive an automated message/notice that flags up saying you issued BP(!!) So they are actively discouraged from issuing this.
All but 2 of the pharmacists I spoke to only had Accord, Teva, or Mercury pharma, and one only had Teva and Accord.
It's quite dire when a patient can prove they have severe reactions to a medication that could potentially leave them in hospital and still can't get an alternative essential medication easily. I live on London woth plenty of pharmacist, but I've had to run around. I think I shall have to write to my MP about it.
I only have 25mcg of Levothyroxine/day and I have not come across any problems getting Wockhardt at all. Perhaps you should ask your GP to name the brand on the prescription (mine does in the first line). I don't see why they wouldn't be able to supply you with the necessary number of boxes to accommodate your 100mcg dose, especially if you have a valid reason for having them. I too was allergic to most other brands which went away when I started on Wockhardt and I've had them ever since.
Thanks Zephyrbear. My GP(s) are being difficult and simply are refusing to name the brand on the prescription. That said, as I haven't tried Wockhardt yet and seen whether I will react to it perhaps it's better that it isn't named for now.
The annoyance is having to go back and request a specific prescription for multiple 25mcg. I don't see why I can't simply turn up with my prescription for 100mcg and get the required amount of boxes, as you rightly and sensibly say.
I have Wockhardt 25 mcg specified on my prescription. I’m on 100 mcg per day and my prescription says “take 4 per day”. I still have problems when the pharmacy tries to dispense other brands, ie Teva and Mercury Pharma but I’ve pointed out that if I could tolerate either of those two brands, I would take 1 x 100 mcg tablet per day not 4 x 25 mcg.
One pharmacy told me they couldn’t get it anymore. A big fat lie - I rang Wockhardt and was told that there were no manufacturing or distribution problems. Admittedly, at that point, I had to ring 9 different pharmacies before I found one that had them in stock.
Much appreciated Gingernut44, But why on earth are pharmacies lying about being able to get it? Is it about money or something I wonder. I certainly have felt I'm getting the brush off a few times.
Thank you Bearo! So it is available. So if it's in supply, why on earth are all the pharmacists acting like I've asked them to supply me with super enriched uranium or something? I'm getting responses ranging from 'Wockhardt? How do you spell it?' because they've apparently never heard of the brand, to its really really hard to get hold of!
The one pharmacy who has any is still requiring me to alter my perfectly valid prescription.
The prescription is valid from your point of view. It results in the right dose for you. But they couldn't submit it to get paid. The NHS Indicative price for Wockhardt is £1.76 but the NHS Tariff would only reimburse 86p. Whereas for 100 microgram tablets, NHS would only pay 77p. And there would be four packs to account for.
But one minute. I know I've had multiple 50'smcg of Teva given to me instead of multiple packs of 100mcg in the past due to stock shortage. Why is this so different?
Special rules can be applied if there is an official shortage protocol in force. And, maybe, a pharmacy will occasionally accept the loss - especially if it is their fault.
As I understand, the pharmacy gets the NHS Tariff price only.
However, if you are specifically prescribed Eltroxin or Vencamil by name (not by mentioning the manufacturer), they will get the NHS Tariff price for that product - not just the generic price.
But I do wish we had some pharmacists on the forum who could jump in and confirm - or tell be I am talking rubbish!
Remember, the pharmacy also gets a dispensing fee!
I do my very best to keep my UK medicines document bang up to date.
helvella's medicines documents (UK and Rest of the World) can be found here:
helvella - Thyroid Hormone Medicines
helvella has created, and tries to maintain, documents containing details of all thyroid hormone medicines in the UK and, in less detail, many others around the world.
This link takes you to a page which has direct links to the documents from Dropbox and Google Drive, and QR codes to make it easy to access from phones.
The UK document contains up-to-date versions of the Summary Matrix for tablets, oral solutions and liothyronine available in the UK.
I knew I was right about the tablets only coming in 25mcg strengths but got told no by the pharmacist! I made it clear I wasn't talking about liquid. He must of been confused. I am very surprised by how tedious this had been, I usually have London privilege and am spoilt with so many pharmacists to choose from, though I tend to stick with my local. But apparently it would seem they all use the very same wholesalers.
Thinking back now, I do remember when covid lockdown started it was hard to get hold of Teva levo.. so perhaps the same problem existed then, I just assumed it was national shortage at the time. Fat point in having so many to choose from if they all stick the same brands from the same wholesalers and aren't willing/or can't order anything in!
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