Pharmacy prices Shop Around!

There are a lot of generic statins out there. I was abroad last year and purchased two different makes. One lot in Holland and one lot in Germany. Both made by different manufacturers. I had a slight reaction from one of them that made me slightly dizzy shortly after I took the tablet even though they were generics of a well known brand. I wonder are the active ingredients always the same.
 
Hi . Does anyone know how much Lipitor or the generic version is currently in Lanzarote; it's currently €14.50 for 30 tablets in Ireland
 
Hi Ger1234,

Welcome to AAM. Sorry I can't give you a price for Lanzarote.

You don't state what strength of tablet that you are seeking and there appear to be 3 of those in Lipitor. [broken link removed] appear to have 6 locations and are pricing them as follows:

10mg x 30 tabs = € 9.41
20mg x 30 = €11.73
40mg x 30 = €16.02

Rosuvastatin (generic) at 10mg x 30 are €4.29. A relative of mine is using those and finds them to be grand.
 
Ger1234 said:
it's currently €14.50 for 30 tablets in Ireland
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Why not buy 6 months supply at a time, that way you only pay one prescription charge.

As Sue Ellen says, a good saving to be made in the Pure Pharmacies, my 6-monthly prescription would only cost €25.71 there, however none are convenient for me, but my local Bradley’s give me 180 x 10 mg Atorvastatin which is a generic Lipitor for €39.18, so €6.53 for 30.

Interesting, looking back in this tread, I was paying €27 for 30 similar tablets in 2012.
 
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I buy Benecor 10mg (for blood pressure) in 2 by 14 tablet strips (28) here in Mayo for €30.00. The prescription lasts 6 mths, then has to be renewed at a cost of €25.00 so the 6 months, inc prescription costs €205.00. In mainland Spain recently and bought "without prescription, 2 by 28 packs for €27.50. I have friends going over at least twice a year so easy to just give them the packet and they get it for me. I've already asked the Spanish chemist and he does a huge Irish trade with people retired over there and bringing back meds for friends and neighbours. Very respectable chemists they are too and have a very large store. I've tried in the past to get same in Lanzarote but cannot without a prescription.
 
Hi. Can any one tell me the price over the counter for anti statins 40 mg 28 tablet box.
 
Both myself and my wife stocked up with our meds on a recent trip to Portugal. An out of date prescription was sufficient. Everything one third the price compared to Ireland and double the quantity. A box of 20 Paracetamol was €1. Usually between €1.50 and €1.80 here for 12.
It is definitely worth the trouble to stick an old prescription in your case when heading abroad, you could save the cost of your flight.
 
Just to note something about generics, they have the same active ingredient but the 'carrier' or binding ingredients may be different.
I've taken some generics and not noticed any difference, with a small number I have to stick to the branded version.

If you are going to Newry to pickup some cheaper meds, the Boots in the Quays shopping centre doesn't have a pharmacy counter.
There is a small chemist in the shopping centre near Debenhams, and the Sainsburys has a full OTC medicines shelf.
I didn't see any real difference in branded OTC medicine prices e.g. Lemsip, but for anything Sainsburys brand they are much cheaper than in Republic e.g. paracetamol, cough medicines, sainsburys version of lemsip.
 
Joeaine said:
Hi. Can any one tell me the price over the counter for anti statins 40 mg 28 tablet box.
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Welcome to AAM.

If you read my post quoted above and below you will see that the statins in Pure pharmacies for 30 of 40mg = €16.02.

You can get their locations of branches and prices on this link: [broken link removed]

Sue Ellen





Sue Ellen said:
Hi Ger1234,

Welcome to AAM. Sorry I can't give you a price for Lanzarote.

You don't state what strength of tablet that you are seeking and there appear to be 3 of those in Lipitor. [broken link removed] appear to have 6 locations and are pricing them as follows:

10mg x 30 tabs = € 9.41
20mg x 30 = €11.73
40mg x 30 = €16.02

Rosuvastatin (generic) at 10mg x 30 are €4.29. A relative of mine is using those and finds them to be grand.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks twofor1 for your response. I'll be buying 6 months. I wasn't aware that the pharmacy made so much for dispensing the goods; I thought their profit was with dthe product....you learn every day
 
I am a pharmacist.

Can I just point out that the restrictions on availability of drugs on prescription -or not- is the decision of the medicines regulator, the HPRA, not the pharmacist or pharmacies.

Charging more than the cost price of a drug is not all profit (see post above this), as is the case in all goods and service industries, including healthcare.

If we as a profession weren't so over-regulated by the government regulator, the PSI (look them up, thepsi.ie), prices here might be closer to the north and Spain too.

By the way, anyone in Ireland can open a pharmacy, once they meet the regulations, pay the extortionate annual fees and employ a pharmacist. It's now the case that the majority of pharmacists are employees and in the main "pharmacy owners" are non-pharmacists/companies with a business background.
So ye can all have a go if you're so inclined!
 
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Miakk said:
I am a pharmacist

.....Charging more than the cost price of a drug is not all profit (see post above this), as is the case in all goods and service industries, including healthcare.

....
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Hello,

Firstly let me say that you have both my respect and appreciation for being willing to speak out on behalf of your profession.

Having said that, I would ask you directly - what is your gross and net margin please (and also, what is the average gross and net margin in the pharmacy sector in Ireland) ? ....I'm asking this on the basis that I have absolutely no idea who you are or where your business is located and assume others here don't know you either, so your personal finances remain confidential.

I'm a little out of touch, but a few years ago I would have had access to the financial accounts of a few pharmacies in different parts of the country and I can say with absolutely certainty that they were making far superior profit margins to many other goods and service industries (with relatively similar levels of Turnover).

I would be of a firm view that a pharmacy is entitled to be profitable, but there needs to be a degree of equity and fairness when it comes to the margins being made on medication which is required for peoples health (I've no issue whatsoever with the margin that a pharmacist might make on other non-medical products or services sold btw).

.
 
MrEarl said:
Hello

Having said that, I would ask you directly - what is your gross and net margin please (and also, what is the average gross and net margin in the pharmacy sector in Ireland) ? ....I'm asking this on the basis that I have absolutely no idea who you are or where your business is located and assume others here don't know you either, so your personal finances remain confidential

I would be of a firm view that a pharmacy is entitled to be profitable, but there needs to be a degree of equity and fairness when it comes to the margins being made on medication which is required for peoples health (I've no issue whatsoever with the margin that a pharmacist might make on other non-medical products or services sold btw).

.
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Thank you Mr Earl,
But I, as is the case with the majority of my pharmacy colleagues and acquaintances, am an employee and therefore have no say in the margins charged or profits made. I certainly can't speak for the margins in the whole sector - which, may I clarify, is not just retail pharmacy. There are pharmacies & pharmacists in hospitals too!
We pharmacists as individuals are personally heavily regulated, but pharmacy owners not so in terms of the margins they can charge or profits they can make, which is the price of capitalism, rightly or wrongly. (How they treat their staff from a professional perspective is also another concern). The financial landscape for pharmacies (and pharmacists) has changed dramatically in recent years and is far less robust than you may have seen previously.

With regards to the pharmacies that Brendan refers to, from my limited knowledge of these businesses, they were able to set up new business models without the legacy debt and costs that other existing pharmacies carry. They also provide a limited range of medicines at those lower costs. I am a pharmacist not a businessperson, and don't know the details of their model. However, I do know that Businesses respond to competition and don't want to lose customers/patients to Healthwave, NI, Spain or anywhere else, so the baseline costs are a legitimate reason.
 
Can someone explain to me why there is such a huge price difference between the price of Cetrine 30 pack in Dublin (I have never seen it below €9.99) and the rest of the country?

I've seen it in Longford for €3.45 and in Leitrim for €2.95.

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It costs €9.00 here - [broken link removed]
Boots don't even stock it anymore and some pharmacies only stock the 10pack @ €5.00.

Why is there such a huge disparity in price?
 

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They are based in Donegal and less than half the price of the RRP in Dublin.
 
As far as I can see Pure pharmacies won't be beaten price wise for the cholesterol meds @ €4.00 for 28 tabs but Tesco pharmacies are regularly cheaper for other meds. The moral of the story as usual it pays to shop around.
 
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