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Drug price increases 5000%

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
This does make me realize though that all the efforts the ME/CFS community makes in trying to bring to attention the unfairness of our treatment, especially with respect to disability payments, is most likely going to fall on deaf ears within the insurance industry itself. We are not going to get the sympathy vote from these insurance companies, if they are headed by psychopaths, as psychopaths don't know what sympathy is!
 

mermaid

Senior Member
Messages
714
Location
UK
I know it's not in quite the same range of price increase here, but some of the thyroid community in the UK are concerned about the huge increase over the past few years of Liothyronine (T3) and the effect this has had on GP's willingness to prescribe.

I believe that it was originally sold as Tertroxin and Goldshield/Mercury Pharma decided to change it to a generic. At that point it was around £15 to £20 per packet, but after it became a generic it rocketed in price to over £100 for 28 tablets. It is only manufactured by one company so there is no competition, and yet it can be bought for a tiny amount in countries such as Greece and Turkey - even over the counter without a prescription.

Thyroxine (T4) is very cheap in comparison and there are an increasing number of surgeries who will not allow their patients to have T3 due to the huge cost. So far I have been lucky since at the moment I am taking over 28 T3 per month, authorised by an endocrinologist.

Other people of course are sourcing NDT (almost impossible to obtain via the NHS), and T3 privately, but they are often doing that to save their health, and many believe both should be available freely on the NHS.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
@mermaid
In case you ever need a cheaper source of T3, note that this drug can be bought at greatly reduced cost from body building hormone websites; see this list.
 

mermaid

Senior Member
Messages
714
Location
UK
Thank you @Hip Also there are a couple of UK Thyroid groups that hold info on places that they know are reliable.