I'm hoping that with the change in the pace of life and a healthy mediterranean diet the drugs will become a thing of the past.

My husband takes lisinopril 20mg and just paid 9.35 euros for a pack of 28. Don't know about the simvastatin.

Rosemary

Thank you! Why, when twice now i have posted some true advice, it gets treated by a few as an untruth?

The price on the box has often had a white coated metallic/magnetic strip over the price section. This is fact-not fiction. And as Rose has confirmed, they can be identical maunufacturers, bt different costs also.

All i can say is it happens regularly! The same as contraceptive pills. "Femodene" (gynovin) in spanish is €18 for 3 months in one pharmacy....and €26 in another! Fact!

Sorry ..... I always shop around and the prices are nearly always different.

Check what is in the tablets, maybe different strength.

I take Clortalidona for high blood pressure and when I was paying for the prescriptions they were the grand sum of 45 centimos!

However, it depends on what drugs you have, there is not a set prescription charge like in the UK.

OH takes Lisinopril and he thinks he pays about €7??

As we pay for all our farmacia stuff without any E121 or whatever, it increasingly amazes us that the price over the counter here is so often less than the price we would have paid for a prescription in the UK. Different of course if you are eligible for free prescriptions in the UK but we wouldnt qualify.

In the UK it was the same .... we had an honest chemist and they would often tell us it was cheaper to buy it without the prescription, presumably less paperwork for them

If XTreme gets on your case you will be back on the tablets

With the twenty six euro packet you do get a weekend away in the honeymoon suite

Bargain, i´m packing me bags!!!

If you buy prescription drugs over the counter then the price is on the box so there is no difference where you buy it.

You cannot obscure the price on the box because if you have a prescription, the chemist has to cut off the price tab and send it back to the health authorities to claim his money back. The price is put on the box by the manufacturer - it's not just a price ticket stuck on by the chemist.

There are often different manufactures of the same drug and they are free to charge different prices but if you buy a specific prescription drug (in Spain you can often do this without a prescription) then the price IS fixed. The doctor may well only prescribe the cheaper generic alternative (just like the UK) but it still has a fixed price.

Contraceptive pills are not necessarily "prescription" drugs and the price does not have to be on the box. This applies to many "over the counter" drugs.

The difference in Spain is that you can buy drugs over the counter that in the UK would only be supplied on a prescription (antibiotics are a good example). These are the ones that have a controlled price.

Have you not read all the replies above of people, including myself, who are contradicting you Fred?

Please accept our comments as fact, as i am sure we all have better things to do with ourselves than "make this up"

I'm not saying you are making this up but it is a fact that prescription drugs in Spain have the price printed on them by the manufacturer.