Do you buy name brand medicine? poll discussion

LouBlue

Wasn't til my sister, who was working in a pharmacy, pointed out to me how much I was paying for Migraleve, when I could get paracetamol and codeine.

Migraleve - about £7
P&C - £1.49

Its true, you just get used to buying a brand and think that 'brand' is to be trusted. What a way to get people to fork out a fortune.

Poppy9

I live in Wales and get free prescriptions but when I was buying my own hayfever medication I went for the cheapest generic versions if possible. I still get the generic version but from GP now so free.

For coughs and cold and most painkillers again I go for supermarket own make (I don't go to GP for these aside from higher strength painkillers that I can't buy OTC).

When DD was a young child I rarely gave her medication but if I did it was own brand paracetamol suspension or ibrufen for children. I only bought branded if it was late at night and that's all I could get!

GrahamH

Next time your doctor prescribes you or your kids a branded medicine, ask whose cancer WON'T be treated as a result. And what the consequences are for that person... :mad: It's that simple.:mad:

The scandal is that UK doctors are allowed to prescribe a BRANDED medicine when the generic alternative does an identical job. The taxpayer is then obliged to pay for the branded version (If the brand is prescribed by the doctor, the pharmacist is legally barred from giving a generic to fulfill the prescription)

:mad: :mad: PRESCRIPTIONS FOR BRANDS KILL (other) PEOPLE:mad: :mad:

Pharmaceutical companies soften the blow by offering these generic-substitution deals as outlined by KittyKitten, in a few areas where their market share has been eroded enough for them to worry.

kittykitten wrote: »

I did once query this with my local hospital pharmacy as the epilepsy med they gave me was an expensive-looking branded one, but was told this is the reason - the manufacturer offers it at a huge discount to the NHS compared to the cost they charge independent pharmacies!

Pharmacies and the NHS fall for this short term win, and to encourage them to return, consumers are told that they're getting a "better" prescription from this chain (or hospital, or NHS Trust) because they're being given the brand.

And so the cycle repeats... Consumers demand branded prescriptions from their doctor, the doctor prescribes it, and the brand maintains its share... at NHS expense.

Result - people's relatives die - the NHS can't afford their specialised drugs needs, because of the money wasted paying for unnecessary branded medicines, as so eloquently put by esuhl

esuhl wrote: »

Of course, I'm sure it's of some comfort to those who have been refused critical drugs that the rest of us have pretty boxes with brand names on, as they are left to die because their drugs are too costly.

Politicians and Doctors are quite happy to see these vulnerable people die - much more palatable than the threat of irrational middle class mums complaining about being prescribed generic paracetamol instead of Calpol for their precious children.

(Explaining the trade off wouldn't be possible in a politician's soundbite, and moreover, it's always tomorrow's problem - the pharma companies' deals are designed to make it appear that the problem is solved financially today)

And, despite being much more knowledgeable about what's going on, doctors are totally supine - they can all afford to pay any price for their own drugs if they ever need to (and meanwhile are heading off to Champagne Receptions at Wimbledon/The Opera, paid for by the drugs companies' sales promotion budgets...)

geordie_lass_2

I buy the cheapest unbranded that I can find.

I have been known to buy branded but I keep a look out on the clearance shelves in Boots. They sell off things like cold medicines when they are off plan or out of season, usually at a fraction of the original cost and always with long dates on, often a couple of years.

It's worth looking out for prescription items that can be bought over the counter too, for example Chemist Direct sell generic Fluconazole capsules to treat thrush for 99p, the branded equivalent costs around £12 :eek: or a prescription charge.

Katie-Kat-Kins

I always check the quantities of active ingredient and work out which brand or own brand is best value, sometimes the cheapest isn't best value. However often what you find is that say lemsip max strength is just a double dose of the supermarket own brand that costs one third. So I buy the own brand and take more!

heather38

graham, that not really true.
i work in pharmacy and the number of people who get branded drugs is tiny. most people get generic drugs.
the government set rebate prices for drugs to chemists and they buy the cheapest drugs they can. sometimes they get huge discounts on branded drugs and so they supply them, if that deal runs out they then buy the cheapest generic.
some people get branded stuff over generic equivelents eg if they are allergic to an inactive ingerdient in generic meds but it is not often.
the problem lies in over prescribing, people go to the gp for paracetamol, cold medicine and even worse medicine they don't need.
i once had a guy return 2 BINBAGS full of medicines after his mother died, she got a repeat every month because she could rather than because she needed them. we worked out that the cost of the medicine we were throwing about £5000.

horseguards

A 500 ml bottle of Senekot Syrup (manufactured by Reckitt Benckiser in the UK) costs just under £5.00 from Sainsbury’s pharmacy. A 150 ml bottle is the same price from Asda’s pharmacy (Asda’s explanation was incoherent).

This is available via prescription or over-the-counter. If a patient goes to Asda with a (free) prescription, the NHS is getting really hammered; if the patient pays himself, and is ignorant, he will be hammered.


Grant.

weiran

GrahamH wrote: »

Next time your doctor prescribes you or your kids a branded medicine, ask whose cancer WON'T be treated as a result. And what the consequences are for that person... :mad: It's that simple.:mad:

The scandal is that UK doctors are allowed to prescribe a BRANDED medicine when the generic alternative does an identical job. The taxpayer is then obliged to pay for the branded version (If the brand is prescribed by the doctor, the pharmacist is legally barred from giving a generic to fulfill the prescription)

:mad: :mad: PRESCRIPTIONS FOR BRANDS KILL (other) PEOPLE:mad: :mad:

Pharmaceutical companies soften the blow by offering these generic-substitution deals as outlined by KittyKitten, in a few areas where their market share has been eroded enough for them to worry.
Pharmacies and the NHS fall for this short term win, and to encourage them to return, consumers are told that they're getting a "better" prescription from this chain (or hospital, or NHS Trust) because they're being given the brand.

And so the cycle repeats... Consumers demand branded prescriptions from their doctor, the doctor prescribes it, and the brand maintains its share... at NHS expense.

Result - people's relatives die - the NHS can't afford their specialised drugs needs, because of the money wasted paying for unnecessary branded medicines, as so eloquently put by esuhl
Politicians and Doctors are quite happy to see these vulnerable people die - much more palatable than the threat of irrational middle class mums complaining about being prescribed generic paracetamol instead of Calpol for their precious children.

(Explaining the trade off wouldn't be possible in a politician's soundbite, and moreover, it's always tomorrow's problem - the pharma companies' deals are designed to make it appear that the problem is solved financially today)

And, despite being much more knowledgeable about what's going on, doctors are totally supine - they can all afford to pay any price for their own drugs if they ever need to (and meanwhile are heading off to Champagne Receptions at Wimbledon/The Opera, paid for by the drugs companies' sales promotion budgets...)

Thanks, given me a good laugh this morning reading this dribble :rotfl:

keet83

I do get free prescriptions, but i dont bother going to the doctors or buying and taking paracetamol or cough remedies etc, my body fights it so whats the point? i dont believe you need this stuff.

nzseries1

Cetirizine Hydrochloride (Zirtek - hayfever tablets):
28p per pack of 30 (no-brand) tablets from chemistdirect.co.uk. They work really well.
Why anybody would pay £3 for 7 tablets from Boots or anywhere else is beyond me.