Disclaimer: I’m in Australia and here vitamins must comply with certain regulations. Feel free to read about it: https://www.tga.gov.au/news/blog/how-are-vitamins-regulated-australia
I bought vitamin D the other day, and couldn’t help but to notice the price differences, such as:
Brand A: $8 x 300 pills Brand B: $30, x 250 capsules Brand C: $40, x 300 capsules
All had the same amount of vitamin per dose (1000 u). They all had the AUST L label which means they undergo controls to ensure that they have what they claim to have, and that they are made under certain safety standards.
I also buy iron supplements but there is nowhere near this much difference between brands. The only obvious difference was the type of pill, the more expensive ones were gel capsules while the cheap ones were hard pills.
So, are gel capsules really that much better? Is the price difference justified? Are there other issues that could explain the price difference in terms of quality?
Capsules are considered more advanced drug packaging because none of the drug dissolves in your mouth when you swallow capsules. Unlike pills, 100% of the drug goes straight to your stomach, so there’s no variation in the drug dosage, and the patient won’t complain if the drug is bitter.
Also because you can open the capsule and pour it into the glass of water, if you have trouble swallowing pills. Which defeats the first advantage, and you can simply order powdered drug instead of pills, but it won’t come pre-packaged as pills so it will be more expensive.
None of that matters for vitamins, you generally need more than 1000% of the daily dose for it to become harmful, so each pill contains more than your body really needs, because there are no side effects, so you can buy a pill and lick it, chew it, crush it, and add it to your coffee, and it will still work just fine.
Does it actually make a difference if it dissolves in your mouth? Everything ends up in your stomach eventually.
It doesn’t matter for most drugs, as long as you can tolerate the taste. There is a gastric ulcers medicine that’s basically a weapons-grade concentrate of chili pepper, eating it raw will cause most people to vomit. Some rare drugs react poorly with saliva, and there are also drugs which are designed to dissolve not in your stomach but in your intestines, but those are usually not capsules but thumb-sized pills with coating so thick you won’t be able to chew through it.
Rule #1 in economy is that the supplier would like to sell at a price as high as possible. People find gel capsules to be more effective, and are willing to sell that much more for them. This is what is setting the price, not the actual performance.
I’m not saying that the cost is not justified. Only, that the question of the production cost is not relevant.
Okay, now that moves my goalpost a notch: are they really as effective as people claim? Do they have a longer shelf life or something? I’m trying to figure out if the price difference is worth it in my personal case. Many times with products you can tell the quality difference very easily, but this is a tricky one
They’re not more effective. They might assist with speed of absorption but that’s it.
Idk about vitamins, it seems to be a bit contrived.
My ADHD stimulants come in hard pills and capsules. Capsules are long absorbtion, they release the drug more slowly in the digestive system. The hard pills are a short burst, usually with lower doses.
It makes a ton of difference to me, but I just eat vitamins as hard pills. Some are difficult to swallow, but I can deal. Some can’t, and capsules are likely better.
It’s probably slightly more difficult for them to make, compared to pressed pills, also marketing is at play and they are trying to make you think it’s worth the increase, but it’s definitely not. I’m in the US as well, and the prices are definitely ridiculous. Apparently Tylenol Liquid Gels are a relatively new thing (I swore they had been out for like a decade) and I remember seeing a bottle like 6 months ago that was $27 for like 30 pills! A regular bottle of solid Tylenol was like $15 for 65 pills. Who in their right mind would opt for the Liquid Gels?
A high end tablet press can make over 1.5 million tablets an hour with no additional consumables or ingredients, Its purely mechanical. Conventional tablets will definitely be cheaper to manufacture but not to the degree that they are sold at in retail markets the whole sales chain of gel capsules are deliberately marking up the product because if you have trouble swallowing conventional tablets you WILL pay the markup.
Gels are far less stable than compressed powder pills
