Ferrous Sulphate 200mg tablets

Cyclizine

It's a waste of time having prolonged courses of iron once you've restocked body stores. 200 mg a day is a massive dose, the iron will not be utilised and will accumulate. You shouldn't take it outwith a medical prescription for such a long time. I presume the original cause of the anaemia has been diagnosed? Not all anaemia is iron deficiency.

sasparillo

I was passing through a town near but not particularly local to me. I had a prescription for ferrous sulphate (x3 200mg a day) and went into Lloyds or the Coop (I am not sure which). When I presented the prescription for four boxes x28 ferrous sulphate, the lady behind the counter said it wasn't worth going via the prescription because they were £1.70 a box.

These were the Almus brand. I have previously taken ferrous fumarate but it causes itchy rashes so the GP swapped me to ferrous sulphate which seems to agree better with me. I do not get constipated on these drugs.

I'm on the last blister pack and went into my local Morrisons pharmacy and asked for ferrous sulphate. This time I hadn't bothered to get a prescription. My GP has said I have to take them for at least six months and I have regular blood tests. The woman behind the counter went to the back and asked me which kind, as there were three.

I indicated it was the reddish brown box - she ran it past the till and said that it would be £4.70 for x28! I was totally taken aback and left but after going around the store, I thought I would ask how much the others were. I told her it was £1.70 in the other pharmacy. She got a bit shirty. Without checking through the till, she said the others were more expensive and that this one had been the "same price for three months" and "the price goes up and down". She quivered just for a second when I then said I had been prescribed 3x a day but rather sneered at my suggestion that this seemed to be a huge discrepancy.

I am now wondering what the rrp actually is. Looking online, I find the latest British National Formulary entry provided by NICE gives £1.08 for x28 for the "NHS indicative price" and the "drug tariff price".

https://bnf.nice.org.uk/medicinal-forms/ferrous-sulfate.html

This maybe makes sense of the £1.70 price. Whatever, looking online £4.70 seems to be a huge mark up for x28 200mg ferrous sulphate tablets.

Any pharmacists or pharmaceutical buyers or sales people reading this who can explain what's going on?

Cyclizine

Private pharmacies can charge what they like for over-the-counter or private prescriptions - they're a business, you can always go elsewhere. The BNF prices are a guide only. Most pharmacies will have some sort of a guideline on how they mark up the drugs, particularly for ones that need special storage etc. Not that FeSO4 does...