Ever since Alendronate Tabs 70mg 4 was launched in the UK as a Generic back in March 2005 the Drug Tariff has closely followed the Pharmacy purchase price, leaving little room for profit for either Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Pharmacists or Dispensing Doctors.
In early 2022 the average market price for this product reached a low of £0.22 and stayed the same for three months. This probably made Manufacturers think realistically about the profit potential of this product. Prices stayed low until April of that year when they started rising, eventually reaching a high of £12.66 in August 2022.
There is nothing specific in our data that demonstrates Manufacturer withdrawal, during this period, but the number of price lists generated by some Manufacturers did seem to go down at that point, recovering in 2023. So it may have been a reduction in stockholding that caused the price to rise rather than a complete Manufacturer withdrawal.
The market then recovered from this low point, and stayed relatively high even through a moderate price hike in early 2025 when prices rose to £1.12 in February of that year. The lowest price seen between these two peaks was £0.48, which suggests that long-term low prices have a psychological effect on sellers that counters reality for some years.
Now in October 2026 prices are rising again, reaching an average of £6.04 at the end of October. It is noticeable that the prices did dip again in 2026, reaching £0.25 in August . So the market may have assumed it was heading into unprofitable territory all over again. Now it does look like we’re in for another price hike and a difficult profit period for a while at least. Concessions have been granted to try and compensate pharmacists for dispensing this unprofitable product in mid to late 2022, early 2025 and in September and October 2026.
The long-term issue is convincing the market this is a product is profitable enough to be worth stocking.