Hello, I’ve been on tamoxifen for 4 months. I have tried two different brands and Relonchem seems to suit me best but I can’t find it anywhere. Any ideas of where can I get it in SW London/Greater London or online? All of my local chemists have said they cannot longer order specific brands. Thanks!!
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I’m the same, I’d read that you should try stay on same brand and now can’t get RelonChem brand. I’m in Wales. Would love to know what answer is
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Hi, I had the same problem with Tamoxifen by Wockhardt. My wonderful pharmacist at Superdrug has always been amazing and does everything to get it for me. Last June he just couldn’t get it so I emailed Wockhardt direct who were extremely helpful. They said to get the pharmacist to get in touch and told him which wholesalers supplied it maybe you could try contacting Relonchem and see if they can help? Good luck xx
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I started on RelonChem but have not been able to get any since January. Last time I asked my pharmacy for it in March they told me it wasnt being made any more, which I dont believe as the company website says nothing of the kind. I’m based in Lancashire, UK.
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Thank you. I will do that! Of all the pharmacies I’ve visited Superdrug were also the most helpful
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And for me! Good luck xx
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I was told about Relonchem before I started tamoxifen in December 2023. I never got to try it unfortunately so I am on Mylan and hardly any side effects. I did contact Relonchem and they said it is for the pharmacy to try to get this but unfortunately each Pharmacy is different and only use certain suppliers.
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Dear @pgm37 Writing as a fellow breast cancer sufferer and a pharmacist, there are many drug shortages at the moment meaning getting a specific brand of a medicine can be harder than ever. Sometimes the supply chain dries up for an item, in which case I’m afraid it’s a trudge round (physically or by telephone) all your local pharmacies to try and find one that has what you need on their shelves. The largest online pharmacy is Pharmacy2U bit I suspect you’ve tried them.
Then, have you spoken to your breast cancer nurse about the issue? It could just be that your hospital outpatient pharmacy has the brand you need and a hospital doctor might be able to prescribe you a supply.
Lastly, sometimes a medicine is made by one company and then put into several different manufacturers packaging, so what’s inside is exactly the same. It’s been a while since I’ve worked in ‘high street’ pharmacy, so I can’t say if this is the case for Relonchem, but the way to tell is the product licence number or marketing authorisation number (some have one and some the other). So have a look on the packaging of a Relonchem box and there will be a number somewhere that starts MA or PL. anything else with the same number will be the same tablet inside, even if the packaging looks like another brand.
I can’t promise on any of the above, but they’re the best I can offer. Hope it’s helpful.
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Hi @suedot, thanks so much for taking the time to reply and for all the info. Hugely appreciated. I am very early on my search as I’ve just only found out about the difficulty of getting a specific brand. I will follow your recommendations and hopefully I will find a solution. Many, many thanks
Hi all, luckily I found RelonChem in a local independent chemist.
In the meantime I also contacted RelonChem and they replied very quickly - they said they can’t provide names of specific pharmacies but gave me the name of three wholesalers they have supplied recently: AAH Pharmaceuticals, Phoenix and
Lexon. Your local pharmacist might be able to order it through these wholesalers.
I hope this helps. Good luck! X
Ah, that’s all good info and helpful for anyone looking for a specific brand. Generally speaking the local independents have a greater chance of you achieving success as they have more wholesalers to pick from. Boots, and Rowlands tend to have their own centralised purchasing team and warehouse meaning once that is dry, all branches are ‘out of stock’ together when they’ve used up what they had locally.