Cheaper prescriptions thread [No imports discussion]

Lillian123 · 20-02-2014 12:31pm #1

www.healthwave.ie

former legend · 20-02-2014 1:03pm

Lillian123 wrote: »

For any people who buy their prescriptions privately, there is some huge savings to be made from this new pharmacy opened in Dundrum called HealthWave. You pay €25 for a yearly membership and you are then entitled to buy any amount of prescriptions in a year.

There is particularly good savings for a range of different drugs, def worth a look if your monthly cost currently comes under the DPS limit of €144. Some drugs such as the pill are 50% cheaper and if you buy more than 1 month upfront it is cheaper.

Here is a link to their website and some of the prices:

http://www.healthwave.ie/clubprice

:)

On the basis of that pricelist anyway, the pill is not any cheaper than getting it elsewhere.

Certainly there seems to be savings for generic drugs but for non-generics you're going to be paying the same as you would in a conventional pharmacy.

Lillian123 · 20-02-2014 1:10pm

Well my pill is €7 cheaper a month!!

former legend wrote: »

On the basis of that pricelist anyway, the pill is not any cheaper than getting it elsewhere.

Certainly there seems to be savings for generic drugs but for non-generics you're going to be paying the same as you would in a conventional pharmacy.

Soarer · 20-02-2014 1:13pm

former legend wrote: »

On the basis of that pricelist anyway, the pill is not any cheaper than getting it elsewhere.

Certainly there seems to be savings for generic drugs but for non-generics you're going to be paying the same as you would in a conventional pharmacy.

Not true.

They're €10 cheaper for my Symbicort than my local pharmacy (€60 as against €70).

My monthly prescription usually runs to €156, of which I pay €144 and the DPS pays €12.

I contacted my local pharmacy about swapping some branded for generics, and with what they could change, it brought my bill down to €135. So yer man said "but for the sake of the €9, you'd be as well off staying with the branded drugs!".

Contacted Healthwave and using the same stipulations as above, they came in at €90.75! So they'd save me €53.25 per month and save the government €12. One of the generics were €7.95 and my local one wanted €32 for the same generic! :mad:

Unfortunately they're in Dublin and I'm in Cork. And An Post can't/won't handle drugs, so I'm stumped until they open in Cork.

Could they dispense a 6 month perscription in one go? It'd be worth the drive up to Dublin if they could.

Lillian123 · 20-02-2014 1:18pm

Could they dispense a 6 month perscription in one go? It'd be worth the drive up to Dublin if they could.[/QUOTE]

Yes they said they can dispense a 6 month prescription in one go, as long as there is 6 months left on the prescription so it might be worth your while travelling up

I just bought 3 months from the Tesco pharmacy in Tallaght and they were the cheapest prices I could find at the time but HealthWave are still about €25 cheaper per month. Its about time prescription drugs come down in price as all the cost has been passed onto the consumer with the increase in the threshold of the DPS to €144.

vicwatson · 20-02-2014 1:23pm

So yer man said "but for the sake of the €9, you'd be as well off staying with the branded drugs!".

This is bull...perhaps he makes more on branded drugs over generic ones

schemingbohemia · 20-02-2014 1:43pm

Looks good for me anyway, thanks OP.

Satriale · 20-02-2014 2:56pm

vicwatson wrote: »

This is bull...perhaps he makes more on branded drugs over generic ones

E9 per month is E108 per annum, almost one months worth of free medication. Advice not to benefit the customer, i think.

RainyDay · 20-02-2014 3:04pm

former legend wrote: »

Certainly there seems to be savings for generic drugs but for non-generics you're going to be paying the same as you would in a conventional pharmacy.

Not in my experience. I checked with Boots last month about switching to generics, and they told me there was no saving. Healthwave offered me the branded product a €10 a month less than Boots, and generic at €20 less than boots - so a net saving of over €200 per annum.

Webbs · 20-02-2014 3:40pm

Soarer wrote: »

Not true.

They're €10 cheaper for my Symbicort than my local pharmacy (€60 as against €70).

My monthly prescription usually runs to €156, of which I pay €144 and the DPS pays €12.

I contacted my local pharmacy about swapping some branded for generics, and with what they could change, it brought my bill down to €135. So yer man said "but for the sake of the €9, you'd be as well off staying with the branded drugs!".

Contacted Healthwave and using the same stipulations as above, they came in at €90.75! So they'd save me €53.25 per month and save the government €12. One of the generics were €7.95 and my local one wanted €32 for the same generic! :mad:

Unfortunately they're in Dublin and I'm in Cork. And An Post can't/won't handle drugs, so I'm stumped until they open in Cork.

Could they dispense a 6 month perscription in one go? It'd be worth the drive up to Dublin if they could.

Have you priced your drugs in the North? It may be worth your while making a trip every 6months to go and pick them up from there?

I save almost 800 euro a year doing it this way.

Only · 20-02-2014 5:51pm

Webbs wrote: »

Have you priced your drugs in the North? It may be worth your while making a trip every 6months to go and pick them up from there?

I save almost 800 euro a year doing it this way.

Will they accept a prescription from the Republic?
I tried getting some prescriptions filled in Spain / Portugal before and they would only sell me the drugs that are otc there - they said I needed a prescription from the relevant country

pjproby · 20-02-2014 6:19pm

they will accept a prescription from the Republic but you may find that some drugs. even generics are not available up north, or are not available as prescribed.

StaticNoise · 20-02-2014 6:46pm

Yep, Tesco Pharmacy is still cheaper for me. By around a tenner compared to the medicine on offer on HealthWave, and by far more compared to the bricks and mortar local pharmacy.

Plus, my generic is from an Irish company.

RichardoKhan · 21-02-2014 5:04pm

Isnt the real question here WHY is it so expensive here in the first place? & here's the humdinger of a rider half of these drugs are made here............

21-02-2014 5:15pm

People forget when comparing prices to the UK/NI that the NHS subsidises the cost of medication heavily unlike here.

Yes I know there are huge markups on stuff as well but we compare different systems.

Also in Spain/Portugal drugs are cheaper but wages are a lot lower with the average wage being 350 - 500 per month(there are some exceptions).

RainyDay · 21-02-2014 5:29pm

RichardoKhan wrote: »

Isnt the real question here WHY is it so expensive here in the first place? & here's the humdinger of a rider half of these drugs are made here............

Possibly because the Irish govt is afraid to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry here, given that the pharmaceutical industry is such a large employer. It also suits the pharmaceutical industry to have higher prices in one country, as they can go round the rest of Europe (i.e. the really large markets that really matter) and say 'Oh we're giving you a huge discount on our standard price, the price that those dumb Paddies pay'

former legend · 21-02-2014 5:43pm

RainyDay wrote: »

Possibly because the Irish govt is afraid to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry here, given that the pharmaceutical industry is such a large employer. It also suits the pharmaceutical industry to have higher prices in one country, as they can go round the rest of Europe (i.e. the really large markets that really matter) and say 'Oh we're giving you a huge discount on our standard price, the price that those dumb Paddies pay'

Not really. The price of medicines which are still under patent is roughly the same as in other northern European countries.

Where the gap really emerges is in the cost of generic medicines, which are far more expensive here than elsewhere, but none (or very few) of them are made in Ireland.

moodrater · 21-02-2014 6:30pm

The whole generic thing can be pretty murky, family member was given generic rosuvastatin lately, checked the 'manufacturer' - office registered in ireland, banking in iceland, product sourced from one of three locations in india/far east. Theres a fine chain of responsibility. Needless to say they went back and were replaced with rosuva from rowex.

fearcruach · 21-02-2014 6:58pm

moodrater wrote: »

The whole generic thing can be pretty murky, family member was given generic rosuvastatin lately, checked the 'manufacturer' - office registered in ireland, banking in iceland, product sourced from one of three locations in india/far east. Theres a fine chain of responsibility. Needless to say they went back and were replaced with rosuva from rowex.

I wouldn't be overly worried about where products are sourced from. All pharmaceutical companies, branded and generic, are worldwide behemoths. You can be guaranteed that the bulk drug comes from India/China for nearly every product and the process of filling it into tablets happens in Ireland/UK etc. So what may seem as an Irish sourced product might not necessarily be.

This isn't a criticism of buying Irish (if any part of the manufacturing process is in Ireland, then that's great) but just don't think it's 100% Irish.

Nonoperational · 21-02-2014 7:18pm

vicwatson wrote: »

This is bull...perhaps he makes more on branded drugs over generic ones

fearcruach wrote: »

I wouldn't be overly worried about where products are sourced from. All pharmaceutical companies, branded and generic, are worldwide behemoths. You can be guaranteed that the bulk drug comes from India/China for nearly every product and the process of filling it into tablets happens in Ireland/UK etc. So what may seem as an Irish sourced product might not necessarily be.

This isn't a criticism of buying Irish (if any part of the manufacturing process is in Ireland, then that's great) but just don't think it's 100% Irish.

That's not really true to be fair.

td2008 · 21-02-2014 8:29pm

Got mine last week - 84 instead of the 144. Both drugs are non-generic. NI was around 100 euro

ted1 · 21-02-2014 9:24pm

moodrater wrote: »

The whole generic thing can be pretty murky, family member was given generic rosuvastatin lately, checked the 'manufacturer' - office registered in ireland, banking in iceland, product sourced from one of three locations in india/far east. Theres a fine chain of responsibility. Needless to say they went back and were replaced with rosuva from rowex.

Was there an issue with the actual drug?

moodrater · 21-02-2014 9:40pm

ted1 wrote: »

Was there an issue with the actual drug?

I didn't have my mass spectrometer on me to check, the point is why would you buy from some dodgy ltd holding company banking offshore with a telephone in an office in dublin, that could evaporate overnight if you can get the same thing from a company thats been in ireland paying taxes since 1959.

ted1 · 21-02-2014 9:45pm

moodrater wrote: »

I didn't have my mass spectrometer on me to check, the point is why would you buy from some dodgy ltd holding company banking offshore with a telephone in an office in dublin, that could evaporate overnight if you can get the same thing from a company thats been in ireland paying taxes since 1959.

Not sure if there is a pill for xenophobia.

Drugs for sale in Ireland are heavily controlled that's part if the cost as they need to be trialled and licenced here.

Do you only where Aran jumpers or do you wear imported clothes?

You do know that generics are also made here. Clonmel healthcare would be an example of a generic pill maker

L1011 · 21-02-2014 9:47pm

The main Indian drug firm, who do actually have manufacturing ops here, have been indicated in some MASSIVE criminal activities:
http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2013/05/15/ranbaxy-fraud-lipitor/

Most of the far off manufactured drugs on sale here are parallel/secondary market imports rather than generics as it stands.

daytob · 21-02-2014 9:52pm

moodrater wrote: »

I didn't have my mass spectrometer on me to check, the point is why would you buy from some dodgy ltd holding company banking offshore with a telephone in an office in dublin, that could evaporate overnight if you can get the same thing from a company thats been in ireland paying taxes since 1959.

what? adobe, apple, and all other multi nationals do this, having one certain part means they avail of the tax perks.

Atlantic Dawn · 21-02-2014 10:27pm

moodrater wrote: »

The whole generic thing can be pretty murky, family member was given generic rosuvastatin lately, checked the 'manufacturer' - office registered in ireland, banking in iceland, product sourced from one of three locations in india/far east. Theres a fine chain of responsibility. Needless to say they went back and were replaced with rosuva from rowex.

Your argument is the same as refusing petrol from Saudi Arabia because you prefer the fuel from Nigeria.

RainyDay · 21-02-2014 10:45pm

fearcruach wrote: »

You can be guaranteed that the bulk drug comes from India/China for nearly every product

There are some active ingredients made here. I was in a warehouse space of one manufacturer in Cork, about the size of a two-car garage. They told me that the value of stock in the room was about half a billion euro - active ingredient waiting to be shipped around the world.

former legend wrote: »

Where the gap really emerges is in the cost of generic medicines, which are far more expensive here than elsewhere, but none (or very few) of them are made in Ireland.

What about Clonmel Healthcare? What about Mylan?

toyotaavensis · 23-02-2014 12:44am

Jonathan Nervous Muscle wrote: »

People forget when comparing prices to the UK/NI that the NHS subsidises the cost of medication heavily unlike here.

Yes I know there are huge markups on stuff as well but we compare different systems.

Also in Spain/Portugal drugs are cheaper but wages are a lot lower with the average wage being 350 - 500 per month(there are some exceptions).

Are you for real? People in spain earn less than here but 350 per month is 4200 a year. Do your numbers again lad.

eddhorse · 23-02-2014 11:10am

I think all the arguments here are flawed, just let people choose where they want to get their drugs !
Thanks for the link OP, heard about this guy on the radio a few months back.
He is trying to bring the prices down himself after working in an Irish pharmacy.
Fair play to him.

maringo · 23-02-2014 1:13pm

Why not use Parcel Motel if An Post won't deliver? Save a lot on petrol and no travelling.

Cheaper prescriptions thread [No imports discussion]

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