Same box, different price: cold and flu medicines in online pharmacies
How much does exactly the same box of a cold or flu medicine cost in Romania's online pharmacies? We compared 39 over-the-counter products, only where we could prove that it is the same product: the same barcode (EAN) and the same pack in each pharmacy's title. The prices are those displayed online between 24 and 26 October 2026.
39products compared
121prices, all with a confirmed EAN code
7.5%median difference for the same box
37.5%the largest difference
In brief: across 39 cold and flu medicines, the median difference between the lowest and the highest price displayed online for the same box was 7.5% (2.00 RON), and the largest 37.5%. For 6 products the difference exceeds 20%; for 15 it stays below 5%. Data collected between 24 and 26 October 2026; 20 prices rechecked directly on the pharmacies' pages.
Findings
What we found
A 36% difference for the same box of Bromhexin
Bromhexin 8 mg, 20 tablets (Antibiotice), an expectorant: 7.50 RON at Farmacia Tei and 10.20 RON at Spring Farma, i.e. 36.0% more for exactly the same product (the same EAN code). In money terms, the difference is 2.70 RON.
Both prices checked directly on the pharmacies' pages on 26 October 2026, at 23:52; the EAN code 5944736003087 appears in the data of both pages, and the product was in stock.
Five pharmacies, five prices for Parasinus Răceală și Gripă
Parasinus Răceală și Gripă 200 mg/30 mg, 10 soft capsules: 19.90 RON at Spring Farma, 20.00 RON at Farmacia Tei, 21.84 RON at Mattca, 23.00 RON at Remedium Farm and 25.79 RON at Farmacia DONA (24.50 RON with the DONA loyalty card). Between the lowest and the highest price: 5.89 RON, i.e. 29.6%.
All five prices checked directly on the pharmacies' pages on 26 October 2026, between 23:40 and 23:53; the EAN code 5054563272799 appears on all five pages. The range covers only the pharmacies at which we could confirm the EAN code; other pharmacies may have lower or higher prices.
Mucosolvan: a 6.60 RON difference for the same box
Mucosolvan 30 mg, 20 tablets: 23.00 RON at Remedium Farm, 26.50 RON at Farmacia Tei and 29.60 RON at Spring Farma, i.e. 28.7% between the lowest and the highest price.
All three prices checked directly on the pharmacies' pages on 26 October 2026, at 23:52; the EAN code 3664798027730 appears on all three pages.
The differences are real, but usually small
Across the 39 products compared, the median difference between the lowest and the highest displayed price is 7.5% (2.00 RON). For 6 products the difference exceeds 20%, for 16 it exceeds 10%, and for 15 it stays below 5%.
Calculated from the 121 prices in the table, collected between 24 and 26 October 2026; the 20 rechecked directly on the pharmacies' pages were identical to those collected.
For a single box, delivery weighs more than the choice of pharmacy
Delivering an online order costs, for example, 11.99 RON (Easybox) or 18.99 RON (to your door) at Remedium Farm, free above 265 RON, and 14.90 RON at Mattca (with online payment), free above 350 RON — several times more than the median difference of 2.00 RON between pharmacies for the same product.
The rates as displayed on the product pages saved on 26 October 2026, at 23:51–23:52 (Remedium Farm, Mattca).
No chain had the lowest price for every product: Spring Farma for 22, Remedium Farm for 14, Farmacia Tei for 4 (one product has a tie for the lowest price). For 28 of the 39 products, Spring Farma displayed exactly 0.10 RON less than Farmacia Tei, so many of these “wins” are worth just 0.10 RON. Remedium Farm had the lowest price for 14 products and the highest (alone or tied) for 19. This is not a ranking of pharmacies: the comparison covers only these 39 products and the pharmacies at which we could confirm the EAN code.
Data
All 39 products
Sorted by percentage difference. “Difference” = (highest price − lowest price) / lowest price. Prices are per box, including VAT, as each pharmacy displayed them online.
The same product (the same EAN code): the lowest and highest price displayed online
Product
EAN code
Lowest price
Highest price
Difference
Pharmacies
Faringosept Combo miere și lămâie 0,6 mg/1,2 mg12 lozenges · Terapia
For each price: the pharmacy, the time of collection and, where applicable, the time we rechecked it directly on the pharmacy's page. The links go to the product page on the pharmacy's website (today's price may differ).
Faringosept Combo miere și lămâie 0,6 mg/1,2 mg, 12 lozenges — 12.00–16.50 RON (+37.5%)
Source: the prices displayed by each pharmacy in its own online shop, collected automatically by HartaFarmacii. We started from the cold, flu, fever, sore throat, blocked nose and cough products in our catalogue.
The same product, proven: an offer enters the comparison only if the pharmacy publishes for it the same EAN code (the barcode on the box) as the others and if its title states the same pack (number of tablets or volume), with no other strength or variant. Without an EAN we do not compare: matching by name easily confuses 10 with 20 tablets, or two flavours.
Only usable offers: product in stock at the time of collection and an identical price across all our data (offer, collected row, page data). The time of collection is given for each price in the table of evidence and in the CSV.
Which products: all 39 products in our catalogue that passed the rules above at three or more pharmacies. Variants (10 or 20 tablets, different flavours) appear separately, each with its own EAN code. We removed only the products whose titles at the pharmacies did not confirm the same pack, and a plaster, which has nothing to do with colds.
Which pharmacies: for 36 of the 39 products, the comparison is between three online pharmacies: Farmacia Tei, Spring Farma and Remedium Farm. For the three most widely stocked products (Aspirin Plus C Forte, Parasinus, Sinupret) we also checked the Mattca and Farmacia DONA pages directly.
Direct check: 20 prices — all those in the findings and a few chosen by us, not a random sample — were rechecked on the pharmacies' pages on 26 October 2026, between 23:40 and 23:53: all were identical to those collected, with the product in stock and no promotional price flagged on the page.
Not the same calculation as the Barometer: the figures here cannot be compared directly with the HartaFarmacii price Barometer, which automatically compares the whole catalogue, on a different set of products and pharmacies, without confirming the EAN code for each offer.
The pharmacies in the comparison:
Farmacia Tei (comenzi.farmaciatei.ro; 26 October 2026, between 01:04 and 02:27); Spring Farma (springfarma.com; 24 October, 23:00 – 25 October 2026, 14:07); Remedium Farm (remediumfarm.ro; 26 October 2026, between 12:20 and 14:20); Mattca (mattca.ro; direct check, 26 October 2026; three products: Aspirin Plus C Forte, Parasinus, Sinupret); Farmacia DONA (dona.ro; direct check, 26 October 2026; a single product, Parasinus: for Aspirin Plus C Forte the title did not state the pack, and the Sinupret page did not display the EAN code).
Pharmacies not included:
Dr. Max — the EAN code does not appear in the data we collect from the chain, and the product page refused us access for the check (HTTP 403); Help Net, Farmacia DAV, Farmacia Ardealul, Napofarm — the EAN code appears neither in the collected data nor on the product pages checked; Minifarm, Pfarma — the EAN code does not appear in the data we collect from them; Catena — does not publish prices online.
Limitations. These are prices displayed online, not shelf prices: some pharmacies state that the online price differs from the one in the physical pharmacy. The study is a snapshot of a few days, not a trend over time: it says nothing about prices going up or down. The comparison covers only the pharmacies at which we could confirm the EAN code, not the whole market. Spring Farma's prices were collected between 24 October, 23:00, and 25 October, 14:07 (the three rechecked on 26 October were unchanged). For the prices not checked directly we cannot say whether they were promotional: the collected data do not flag promotions. Farmacia DONA also displays a lower price for loyalty card holders; the table shows the public price. For most products, Spring Farma and Farmacia Tei display prices 0.10 RON apart, so they are not independent price sources.
What we removed along the way, and why (7)
Nurofen 200 mg (at the pharmacies: medicated plaster, 2 pieces): outside the scope: the EAN belongs to the Nurofen 200 mg plaster (2 pieces), not to a cold medicine
Bixtonim Xylo Duo nasal spray for adults: the volume differs between titles: 10 ml (Remedium Farm) versus 10.5 ml (Tei, Spring Farma)
Advil Duo 500 mg/200 mg film-coated tablets: the number of tablets is missing from the title at Tei and Spring Farma
Afrin Mentol 0.5 mg/ml nasal spray: the volume (15 ml) is missing from the title at Spring Farma; fewer than 3 pharmacies remain
Afrin 0.5 mg/ml nasal spray: the volume (15 ml) is missing from the title at Spring Farma; fewer than 3 pharmacies remain
Aspirin Plus C Forte 800 mg/480 mg, 10 effervescent tablets — the Farmacia DONA offer: the title does not state the pack (10 effervescent tablets)
Sinupret oral drops, 100 ml — the Farmacia DONA offer: the product page did not display the EAN code
For the press
How to cite the study
The data may be reused freely, with attribution and a link to this page (CC BY 4.0 licence). The CSV file contains all 121 prices, with the pharmacy, the EAN code, the time of collection and of the check, and the link to the pharmacy's page. Its column headings and product titles are in Romanian.
Informational only — HartaFarmacii is not an approved medical site. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before taking any medicine. Don't self-medicate. Emergencies: 112.
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