Martin Lewis: A drugs bust – stop letting big pharmaceuticals rip you off!

Any women who use the period pain product Feminax Ultra might want to pay a visit to a drug store if they go on holiday to the US. The comparable branded Aleve or unbranded naproxen is available for a few pence per dose instead of tens of pence. There's an irrelevant difference between the Feminax 250mg and the US over the counter 220mg.

The culprit seems to be the more limited marketing authorisation in the UK vs the US.

Even pharmacists don't know. I was taking a prescription only medicine (OAP, no charge) but I noticed the same item with almost identical packaging (same pharmaceutical company) on the open shelves (over the counter or pharmacy only, can't remember) at less than half the charge. I used the (Lloyds) pharmacy regularly and asked the pharmacist why. He said the ingredients would be different, but I'd already checked they were identical (I didn't know about the PL no.) He looked, was astonished and called his colleague at another nearby Lloyds, who was also astonished. He said he guessed nobody at HQ had clocked on to this, as buying, holding and delivering 2 products would be more costly and the price they were refunded by the NHS for the prescription only pack would be less than the price they charged for the other one, which he could equally supply for the prescription, as it was the contents that were prescribed, not the pack. I don't think I'm ultra-bright, so I heaved an inward sigh.