Worked examples
Private prescription cost examples: six medicines priced line by line
Updated
How much do private prescriptions cost? The medicine, the pharmacy's dispensing fee and 20% VAT on both. This is the same arithmetic the estimator runs, written out for six medicines people are commonly prescribed privately. Every medicine line is the NHS Drug Tariff basic price for September 2026; the fee and VAT are added exactly as the estimator adds them.
Six private prescriptions, priced
| Medicine and quantity | Drug Tariff price | With Pharmacy2U's £9.90 fee + VAT | With a £5 to £15 fee + VAT | NHS charge | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amoxicillin 500mg capsules, 21 capsules | £1.30 | £13.44 | £7.56 to £19.56 | £9.90 | NHSBSA Drug Tariff Part VIIIA, September 2026 |
| Sildenafil 50mg tablets, 4 tablets | £0.63 | £12.64 | £6.76 to £18.76 | £9.90 | NHSBSA Drug Tariff Part VIIIA, September 2026 |
| Desogestrel 75microgram tablets, 84 tablets | £2.08 | £14.38 | £8.50 to £20.50 | £9.90 | NHSBSA Drug Tariff Part VIIIA, September 2026 |
| Atorvastatin 20mg tablets, 28 tablets | £0.72 | £12.74 | £6.86 to £18.86 | £9.90 | NHSBSA Drug Tariff Part VIIIA, September 2026 |
| Fluconazole 150mg capsules, 1 capsules | £0.75 | £12.78 | £6.90 to £18.90 | £9.90 | NHSBSA Drug Tariff Part VIIIA, September 2026 |
| Isotretinoin 20mg capsules, 30 capsules | £44.40 | £65.16 | £59.28 to £71.28 | £9.90 | NHSBSA Drug Tariff Part VIIIA, September 2026 |
Read the middle columns as the pharmacy's floor rather than its price. A pharmacy that buys a generic below Tariff can quote less; one that marks up the list price, or dispenses a Category C brand, quotes more. The point of the table is the shape: for a cheap generic the fee is most of the bill, so the pharmacy you choose matters more than the medicine; for isotretinoin the medicine is most of the bill and the fee barely moves it.
Source: NHSBSA Drug Tariff Part VIIIA, September 2026
How each line is built
- Medicine: the Drug Tariff Part VIIIA basic price for the listed pack, pro rata to the quantity prescribed (21 amoxicillin 500mg capsules at £0.93 per 15 is £1.30).
- Dispensing fee: £9.90 per item where a pharmacy publishes one (Pharmacy2U), or £5 to £15 where it does not, which is the range pharmacies themselves quote.
- VAT: 20% on the medicine and the fee together. A medicine dispensed on an NHS prescription is zero-rated; the same medicine on a private prescription is standard-rated.
- NHS comparison: £9.90 per item in England, or less with a prepayment certificate or an exemption.
When private beats the NHS charge
| Situation | Cheaper route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Low-cost generic, one-off course | Often private | Drug cost + fee can undercut the flat £9.90 charge, ask the pharmacist to price it |
| Regular NHS-prescribed medicines, 12+ items/year | NHS with a 12-month PPC | £114.50 caps the year however many items, see our PPC guide |
| You qualify for an exemption | NHS | Free, check the exemption list first |
| Medicine not funded on the NHS | Private is the only route | You pay full cost; compare pharmacy prices, they vary widely |
Three ways to keep a private prescription cheap
- Ask for the generic name on the prescription rather than a brand, where clinically appropriate, the price difference can be large.
- Phone pharmacies for a price before handing the script over, supermarket and online pharmacies are often cheapest, and quotes for the same item genuinely differ.
- Check whether the NHS would prescribe it. If your NHS GP will prescribe the same medicine, the £9.90 charge (or a PPC, or an exemption) usually wins for anything ongoing.
Per-medicine private prices change monthly with the Drug Tariff and vary by pharmacy, so this page is dated and every figure names the Tariff edition it came from. Where we are introduced to a pharmacy's quote we record it, anonymised, in a quote ledger; that ledger is published once it holds 25 quotes, not before.