I had to buy injections for the prevention of thrombosis for my husband when he was discharged from Levante hospital after an operation and they cost me £50.

Jean

Benidorm is not cheap for over the counter medicines,I bought some Paracetamol a couple of years ago,expensive!.I get 2 ventolin sprays on prescription for one charge off my doctor,bought one in Tunisia recently for £1.40.

I think you have to be very careful when comparing the cost of medicines between buying in the Uk, the cost of prescriptions and the cost of medicines in Benidorm.

It's not as simple as it appears"¦.if only it was.!

Most drugs go through a period when a "patent" is applied to them and this patent is to protect the product against generic drugs being produced, within a certain timescale...it could be 1 year, 5 years or 10 years.
This is to ensure that the inventor of the drug has a set time to recuperate some of the cost for the years of research, trials and getting a licence for their product"¦therefore a fixed price is applied to the product and this will be applied either in the UK, Europe or World Wide "¦and Benidorm (depending on the patent/licence)

When the patent expires and another pharmaceutical company makes a copycat, then they can drastically reduce the cost of the medicines, as they have no research or trials to finance because by the time the patent expires, the drug has been tried and tested.

It can also work the other way when referring to prescription charges in the UK.
The prescription charge is a set amount per item and the government is responsible for fixing the cost, but after the patent has expired, the NHS will cut the cost of their bill, by letting generic products be prescribed by GP's, where possible.
This can mean that the generic drug would cost less to buy over the counter, than the prescription cost, if you could buy it.
On the other hand, you could be paying under £7 for a prescription, when the actual cost of the product is far greater.

Spain is far more relaxed than the UK by letting antibiotics be sold over the counter and in the case of the Amoxicillin that I purchased, it was a generic drug made by SALVAT laboratories in Barcelona"¦.hence the cost of € 2.39.

In the UK, we also have N.I.C.E......which is a government organisation/panel who look at the cost effectiveness of drugs as most pharmaceutical companies will claim that their drug can do XYZ, but after studying the drug, its effectiveness and cost to the NHS, the panel will decide if it's beneficial to patients and performs to the claims made by the pharmaceutical companies.
They then will decide if it can be added to the authorised list of drugs that GP's are allowed to prescribe, however, there is nothing from stopping you going privately to see your GP and having a private prescription issued, at the full and sometimes extortionate cost of the drug.

Basically, the price of the drug will differ between Benidorm and the UK, based on the points above and whether a patent has expired or not, and whether the drug can be bought over the counter.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

I have a funny story about buying medicines over the counter in Benidorm.

My partner flies racing pigeons and was told by a fellow flyer about a product that he could buy over the counter that would clean the guts of the birds and make them fly better. I haven't got the name of it at hand but will dig it out later, anyhow he had forgotten what to ask for so whilst in the Farmacy he text his friend who quickly text him back with the name of it.
He showed the text it to the assistant and asked for 4 boxes of the stuff at which point she gave him rather a strange look but duly sold him it.
He later found out that it's for treating thrush.
His friend still insists that it wasn't a windup but he still hasn't tried his pigeons with it.

Sue

My friend buys an ointment in Spain for haemorrhoids but uses in her face!.She swears it reduces her wrinkles!

Always get a supply of Amoxcillin and also Predisona which is supplied to people with asthma for my mother. I also swear by the dentispray which cures even the most acute toothache.