Now THAT'S what I call a mark-up!!!

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JillA

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Young cavvie presented at the vets with constant scratching but not breaking the skin. Vet thought it was a problem (with a very long name I can't remember lol) of the skull impacting on the spinal chord/nerves in the area and suggested rather than a £1k brain scan we try diagnosis by therapy with Gabapentin and gave me 30 caps to try for a couple of weeks.
The price per capsule? £1. The price in Lloyds chemist for 100? £6. Guess who will be getting a prescription if the dog has to be on them for life. It's a rip off considering I had also paid for the consultation!
 
Vets think that every single cavalier presented to them has syringomyelia..... 🙄. Scratching can be one of the symptoms of it but can also be a symptom of other things!

MRI scans do not necessarily provide evidence of syringomyelia, they indicate a predisposition to it (which quite honestly I’d imagine the vast majority of CKCS would have)
 
Gabapentin has recently been reclassified as a controlled substance so you will only be able to obtain a prescription for 28 days supply at a time, that may not turn out to be a cost effective alternative unfortunately. And I agree, they probably can't buy it in at the same price as Lloyds. Vet price will also include a dispensing fee so not a true price per capsule (although I appreciate that doesn't change the total cost!)
 
blackcob said:
Gabapentin has recently been reclassified as a controlled substance so you will only be able to obtain a prescription for 28 days supply at a time, that may not turn out to be a cost effective alternative unfortunately.
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If that is the same as Prascend, it depends on the pack size. I get 160 Prascend at a time because that is the pack size. And yes, I appreciate the difference in wholesale prices but Lloyds will be making a profit on them at that price so buy them in for less, Even allowing for the quantities purchased I wouldn't think vets pay more than 30 or 40p per capsule
 
I don't think prascend is a controlled substance? Gabapentin (and pregablin) got reclassified this March as Category C controlled substances.
Yes lloyds will be making a profit but depending on the size of the vet practice sometimes they can't get the drug for the same price as you could buy it from a bigger set up ie lloyds, they are paying more than lloyds retail price.
 
They’ll probably make more from you by doing the prescription so they’ll be happy with that. Say the prescription fee is £15 and their mark up 50% (pretty high for drugs but some the older practices still on that), they’d be buying your drugs at £19.80 so making £10.20 a month buying the drugs in, storing them as a controlled drug, risking the excess going out of date, staffing the practice so you can collect controlled drugs and 5 min prescribing and dispensing time vs £15 for 5 min prescribing and a piece of paper. Vets just can’t compete with the big pharmacies so are generally happy to do written. It does mean the in-house stock is more limited so there’s sometimes a wait to get meds but we just can’t compare. We went through a phase of trying to price match but it’s not sustainable to actually pay people to treat their pets which is what was happening!
Wonder what the mark up is on a costa coffee or a pair of Tesco’s jeans. The online pharmacies have incomparable overheads to a practice. I’m sure over the next years the pricing structure will change massively so the actual service/skill charge isn’t subsidised by drugs mark ups but priced appropriately to cover the cost of running the business without drugs sales money.
 
My dog is on gabapentin and I can get 4 months at a time by prescription, from Lloyd’s at 6p a capsule.

Vet was saying there was some veterinary supply regulation that stopped them sourcing from a human pharmacy themselves - they didn’t have much choice in the matter. Might have got that wrong?
 
Ihatework that is correct. Medications must be prescribed under the cascade, veterinary liscenced first.

It costs a fortune to buy in from drug companies. To put it into perspective, it’s cheaper for me to buy in a drug online for my own pet than it is to order in at cost price. That’s without the cost of running a business/wages to consider.
 
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