I simply do not understand what is supposed to happen if the distributor price is higher than the NHS Tariff price.
When it is a small difference, I think the pharmacy is expected to take the hit. But when it is a larger difference, one which is unsustainable for the pharmacies, I really do not know of an answer.
And I have not yet managed to find a way of finding out!
I would think the pharmacy is contracted with NHS to accept their cost and the pharmacy probably writes off the extra or maybe the pharmacy should be negotiating with manufacturers for cost or NHS should be negotiating and contracting with manufacturers and pharmacies …. Who knows.
The British National Formulary (BNF) has info on the types of Levothyroxine and Liothyronine that have been approved for prescription. I don't understand the pricing information though. Perhaps you could ask at a pharmacy what it means to them.
Levothyroxine
Look in the Medicinal Forms section and note that Teva appears many times in the Levo list, once for each dose :
One of the troubles is that the company names in that list are of suppliers - manufacturers, distributors and importers.
Where it says, for one example, Medihealth (Northern) Ltd, we cannot tell which make they are referring to. Indeed, the product they supply could change every day!
Though where it says Teva, we can be sure that is the product. Where it says "Eltroxin" we can be sure. And we can see different NHS Indicative Prices for Advanz Pharma Eltroxin and Advanz Pharma Levothyroxine.
Nor do we ever see company names such as Alcura - which sometimes mentioned by members as a pharmacy supplier.
Just jumping in here to say that there are pharmacies that do postal, so you're not limited to the local places. (I'm imagining something more like a warehouse, rather than a little shop). I stumbled across mine accidentally following a misunderstanding, and so far they've proved MUCH more efficient than face to face pharmacy. (And if anything needed immediately, like antibiotic, the Dr can send that particular prescription locally). Probably not allowed to list the pharmacy, but if anyone wants to know, they can message me.
I could do with you living near me. I'm waiting for my chemist to off load 4 boxes of teva so they can re order more stock and hopefully get my Morningside brand in.
I'm going through same issue. I need Morningside brand and pharmacy can't specify to wholesaler what brand they need. I'm walking round with a prescription for 336 Morningside tablets that no one can fulfil. It's ridiculous when through not fault of your own you can only take a certain brand but chemist cannot order that brand in for you.
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