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Hi! I'm amazed to find so much information, and I'm humbled by some of the things you guys have to put up with: I moan about having to use eye drops every hour, but I now feel I'm getting off lightly.
I use (tube) Viscotears during the day and (vial) Celluvisc at night, and between the two I am pretty much OK. I get them on prescription and I pay about £100 a year as a one-off fee for all my prescriptions, which works out cheaper than paying individually.
But recently the pharmacy - or their suppliers - started substituting foreign brands (in their own boxes) for Novartis Viscotears. I didn't want to use anything I wasn't used to, and my GP wrote 'supply Viscotears' on the prescription, which fixed things for a while. But the last prescription turned out to be tubes of a German brand, repackaged in boxes which say 'Viscotears' (but not 'Novartis') and are in the correct white and pale green colours. The boxes are not identical, but very similar, to Novartis ones.
Has anybody else had this problem? I was reduced to buying OTC in a couple of other pharmacies which both, when asked for Viscotears, supplied the Novartis ones.
Any advice on why it's happening and what I can do about it would be welcome.
I use (tube) Viscotears during the day and (vial) Celluvisc at night, and between the two I am pretty much OK. I get them on prescription and I pay about £100 a year as a one-off fee for all my prescriptions, which works out cheaper than paying individually.
But recently the pharmacy - or their suppliers - started substituting foreign brands (in their own boxes) for Novartis Viscotears. I didn't want to use anything I wasn't used to, and my GP wrote 'supply Viscotears' on the prescription, which fixed things for a while. But the last prescription turned out to be tubes of a German brand, repackaged in boxes which say 'Viscotears' (but not 'Novartis') and are in the correct white and pale green colours. The boxes are not identical, but very similar, to Novartis ones.
Has anybody else had this problem? I was reduced to buying OTC in a couple of other pharmacies which both, when asked for Viscotears, supplied the Novartis ones.
Any advice on why it's happening and what I can do about it would be welcome.