cost co cheap meds???? | ADHD Information
Thanks for the post vickie....Although I hate to pay an arm and leg for drugs, and do think of it as wise to shop around. It is not the cost of the actuall drug you are paying for it is the process from some chemist's idea to mass production. I look at it as I am now paying for the development of new drugs 10 years from now.
The MS drug I was on for several years ran about 0 per month and because it is injectable (once a week), the insurance did not have the usual co-pay but rather a standard 20% co-pay (0). That was really tough. But when you have 2 babies and are facing a high chance of a wheelchair before they are teens, you are just thankful that you have been given an increased chance to see them to adulthood before you are diabled. Fortunately, I appear to have a relatively benign course and have stopped the med. It is unfortunate that the cost of progress is so high.
Out of curiosity, I googled the sender name and the word hoax and found some links. Apparently, the sender name of the mail are not correct. Here are a couple:
http://www.thecompounder.com/otherdrugcosts.php
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/forum/forum_comments/1852 /item.name
The cost of the ingredients is usually very little compared to recouping the costs for the discovery costs, clinical trials to get the drugs approved and meeting ongoing regulatory requirements to keep the meds on the market. They try to recoup those costs and turn a profit before the patents run out and the generics start coming out.vickie38990.6949421296got this in my email --- have no clue whether any of it is either true
or of any use to anyone. but just in case it is:
Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active
ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a
lot, since many drugs sell for more than .00 per tablet. We did a search
of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found
in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of Life
Extension, a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States
contain active ingredients made in other countries. In our independent
investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the
actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs
sold in America .
The data below speaks for itself.
Celebrex: 100 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): 0.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $ 0.60
Percent markup: 21,712%
Claritin: 10 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): 5.17
Cost of general active ingredients:
.71
Percent markup: 30,306%
Keflex: 250 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): 7.39
Cost of general active ingredients: .88
Percent markup: 8,372%
Lipitor: 20 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): 2.37
Cost of general active ingredients: .80
Percent markup: 4,696%
Norvasc: 10 mg
CONSUMER price (100 tablets): 8.29
Cost of general active ingredients: .14
Percent markup: 134,493%
Paxil: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): 0.27
Cost of general active ingredients: .60
Percent markup: 2,898%
Prevacid: 30 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): .77
Cost of general active ingredients: .01
Percent markup: 34,136%
Prilosec: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): 0.97
Cost of general active ingredients: .52
Percent markup: 69,417%
Prozac: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): 7.47
Cost of general active ingredients: .11
Percent markup: 224,973%
Tenormin: 50 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): 4.47
Cost of general active ingredients: .13
Percent markup: 80,362%
Vasotec: 10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): 2.37
Cost of general active ingredients: .20
Percent markup: 51,185%
Xanax: 1 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): 6.79
Cost of general active ingredients: .024
Percent markup: 569,958%
Zestril: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): .89
Cost of general active ingredients: .20
Percent markup: 2,809
Zithromax: 600 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): ,482.19
Cost of general active ingredients: .78
Percent markup: 7,892%
Zocor: 40 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): 0.27
Cost of general active ingredients: .63
Percent markup: 4,059%
Zoloft: 50 mg
Consumer price: 6.87
Cost of general active ingredients: .75
Percent markup: 11,821%
Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone
should know about this. Please read the following and pass it on.
It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can
afford to put a Walgreen's on every corner. On Monday night, Steve Wilson,
an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit , did a story on
generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation,
that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more.
Yes, that's not a typo. three thousand percent! So often, we blame the drug
companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this
case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves.
For example, if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name
brand, you might pay 0 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that
if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost , making you
think you are "saving" . What the pharmacist is not telling you is that
those 100 generic pills may have only cost him !
At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not
there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said
that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic
drugs.
I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its
online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the
online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own
experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea in
chemo patients.
I used the generic equivalent, which cost .99 for 60 pills at CVS. I
checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for .89.
For 145 of my pain pills, I paid .57. I could have got 150 at Costco for
.08.
I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store,
you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a
federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish
to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in (this is true).
I went there this past Thursday and asked them. I am asking each of you to
please help me by copying this letter, and passing it onto your own e-mail
list, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail address.
Sharon L. Davis
Budget Analyst
U.S . Department of Commerce
Room 6839
Office Ph: 202-482-4458
Office Fax: 202-482-5480
E-mail Address: sdavis@doc.gov