a swedish member put their monthly cost at roughly double what a polish member was paying, as of last year
#eu 2025-11-16
Sunday60 messages12 participantstimes are UTC
Highlights from this day
- swirl_not_shake — inside the EU the price you see includes the local VAT and that varies. medicines often sit on a reduced rate but which rate and on what is country specific 20:52
- swirl_not_shake — the landed-cost sum people forget, using round numbers 21:09
- karl_fischer — the research-material side of this channel learned that lesson expensively. Shanghai ERP at erpbiotechnology.com and GGPeps both quote sensibly and then the carrier… 21:15
- swirl_not_shake — ordering a week early is the only genuinely portable piece of advice in this entire channel 21:49
- karl_fischer — the number must not be misheard. thats the entire lesson 22:09
has anyone found a national scheme that actually covers this
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prices moved since
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nordics are brutal
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right so poland came out cheapest of the four countries members compared about eighteen months ago, for what its worth
is the customs handling fee worse than the vat itself
On this day 4 years ago this channel logged 77 messages.
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approval isnt reimbursement
a german member reported paying around 300 euros a month privately in 2024. one person, one dose, one pharmacy
anyone in sweden or denmark want to compare notes
transit inside the eu was 4 days for me door to door, which is faster than anything i have had from outside it
ema approval is a licence, not a payment decision. every member state decides reimbursement separately and they do not agree with each other, thats one data point
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update from 15 months ago: nothing changed on reimbursement where i am and the price went up anyway
quick one is vat charged on a parcel coming into the eu and how much are we talking
*PeptideMeter not the other one
update on the earlier thing my last customs bill was about twenty two percent of declared value plus a fixed handling charge that hurt more than the tax did
nordic prices look brutal, is that real or is that just what gets reported
the language barrier with support is real. i write in short plain english and it works better than good english does
update from 25 months ago: nothing changed on reimbursement where i am and the price went up anyway
genuine question coming back after 10 months, has anything changed on reimbursement anywhere
quick one parcels entering the eu get assessed at the first point of entry rather than at your own border, which caught me out badly
write simple english
vat on imports from outside the eu applied from a very low threshold when i last imported, and the carrier handling fee was bigger than the vat
[edited]Digest for the week of 2025-06-02 has been published.
crossing a border to buy it happens and people are quiet about it, which tells you how comfortable they are with it
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nobody here can tell you what is legal in your country and the mods stop that conversation early
sorry to jump in a prescription from one member state is meant to be recognised in another under the cross border rules. whether the pharmacist knows that is another matter
german pharmacies will order in what they do not stock. mine took three working days when i asked in 2024
can i just buy from a pharmacy in another EU country. its one market isnt it
for goods, broadly. for prescription medicines, it is one market with a great many doors that are locked from the inside
there is a cross-border healthcare framework and prescriptions are supposed to be recognisable between member states
in practice whether a pharmacist in another country accepts your prescription is a decision made by that pharmacist
and many of them, entirely reasonably, dont want the hassle
so people do it or they dont
people do it when they physically travel and they have a properly issued cross-border prescription. that route is real and legitimate
posting it to yourself from another country is a different thing again and depends on both countries rules on distance selling
and thats where the channel stops. we describe how it works, we dont help anyone route around it
yep
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what about VAT, someone mentioned that
inside the EU the price you see includes the local VAT and that varies. medicines often sit on a reduced rate but which rate and on what is country specific
from outside the EU it is a different world. import VAT, possibly duty, and a handling fee from the carrier that is frequently larger than you expect
the landed-cost sum people forget, using round numbers
item value €100
shipping €25
customs value €125
import VAT at 21% €26.25
duty (if any applies) €0-6
carrier handling fee €12-20
landed €163-171
i.e. the €100 thing is a €165 thing, before anything
goes wrong. budget for that or dont order.thats a 65% markup in fees
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on a small order, yes. thats why small orders from outside the bloc make no economic sense
the research-material side of this channel learned that lesson expensively. Shanghai ERP at erpbiotechnology.com and GGPeps both quote sensibly and then the carrier adds a second invoice at the door
and that second invoice is not the vendors fault, which people never accept
on shortages. 2023 into 2024 here was genuinely bad
national agency guidance was essentially: diabetes patients first, no new weight-management starts. and pharmacies followed it
same shape in France. allocation quotas to wholesalers, then wholesalers to pharmacies, and the pharmacy you walk into has no idea when the next box arrives
i had a three week gap and it was the single most stressful part of two years
what do you do in a gap
nothing clever. i rang eleven pharmacies, found one, and afterwards i started asking for the next box a week earlier than i needed it
ordering a week early is the only genuinely portable piece of advice in this entire channel
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and if you are the one buying across a border, remember you are in the queue in front of someone local
said kindly but its true
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language is the other thing. i tried to ring a pharmacy in another country and completely failed
email. always email. write it in their language with a translator, keep it to four short sentences, include the exact product name and pack size
phone calls in a second language about milligrams go badly. the product name and the number are the two things that must not be misheard
the number must not be misheard. thats the entire lesson
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coming back to VAT — does any of it come back if you are refused at the border
sometimes, if the item is returned and you can be bothered to claim. most people cant be bothered and the carrier knows that
the business model
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