Drug ripoffs (Prozac, prescriptions, specialist, expensive)
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Years ago, I listened to an interview with the CEO of a major drug company (I can't remember who he was or what company he represented), but he was asked why his company sells the same drug overseas for a much lower price than it does here in the US.
His response was, basically, because American's can afford it. He claimed that essentially overcharging American's made it possible for them to help poorer countries by selling their product at a much reduced rate. In other words, we are subsidizing medicine for poor people in foreign countries because we're "rich" Americans.
Ok, fine, but forcing an old person on Social Security to pay $100 a pill, against their will, just to allow the drug company to be noble benefactors, is just wrong.
Another problem a few years back was big pharma claiming they have to shell out so much money for research and developement, when in fact most of the money is spent on advertising.
It's easy to fix though, 5 or 6 scientists making $100,000 a year leave big pharma company A, go set up research company B and the next thing you know they're millionaires flying helicopters to work.
Actually, in Europe, and in many other areas, individual countries' governments dictate the prices that can be charged for a drug. IF they make it available.
NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) in the UK is notorious for not paying for any drug they don't deem acceptable. There was a huge brouhaha about NICE not approving Sutent for renal cell carcinoma, even though thre were ample clinical trials proving its benefit. It took a while to convince them, but now patients in the UK can get Sutent.
Here are a few examples of what pharmacies charge, compared to the cost of the active ingredients.
Celebrex: 100 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $ 0.60
Percent markup: 21,712%
Lipitor: 20 mg
Consumer Price (100 tab lets): $272.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80
Percent markup: 4,696%
Paxil: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60
Percent markup: 2,898%
Prozac: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11
Percent markup: 224,973%
The grand prize goes to.
Xanax: 1 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024
Percent markup: 569,958%
Was this information from the article and does it include all medications?
I'm curious as there are medications here in Australia which are on the PBS and will cost the patient either $5.50 on a health card or possibly $30 - $50 if they're not that would cost a person $1500 to $2000 per month in the US.
Was this information from the article and does it include all medications?
I'm curious as there are medications here in Australia which are on the PBS and will cost the patient either $5.50 on a health card or possibly $30 - $50 if they're not that would cost a person $1500 to $2000 per month in the US.
Those examples, plus a few more were in the e-mail that I confirmed as true.
I am in Canada and buy all my prescriptions at Costco...I think drugs are less expensive here than in the US.
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 $100 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are 'saving' $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10!
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. By the way, you do not have to be a member to buy at Costco's pharmacy.
Those examples, plus a few more were in the e-mail that I confirmed as true.
I am in Canada and buy all my prescriptions at Costco...I think drugs are less expensive here than in the US.
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 $100 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are 'saving' $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10!
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. By the way, you do not have to be a member to buy at Costco's pharmacy.
Thanks Sanspeur but I think we have like ONE Costco in the WHOLE COUNTRY here and I"m not sure they have a pharmacy anyway.
As to the pharmacies well we have generic brands of medication here also and the price will vary depending on which pharmacy you go to but because we have the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) most medication is given a scheduled price regardless of if it is generic or brand and regardless of the pharmacy you go to. Things get ugly when you start dealing with medications not on the PBS though.
Pharmacies here have other ways of getting around things though. For instance if you have a medication like the one I mentioned earlier that costs the pharmacy $1500 per month to fill your script AND they can only charge you $5.50 (on a health care card) or $30 (without the health care card) before they seek reimbursement through the PBS then you might find them refusing to supply you your medication twice within in the one month should you need to get it early. THEN you have to go to your specialist and get a special prescription which in effect costs you for the consult. It's a tricky little game. I'm not surprised that there is price fixing going on with pharmacists as well as the massive descrepencies between what some people pay for their medications. One has to wonder if a medication truly does cost $1500 per month or not.
The cost of the active ingredients is irrelevant, to some degree.
The real cost is discovery of the drug, testing the drug (which can take many, many years), manufacturing to specs, FDA user fees, etc. There are many costs which are not apparent to the consumer in the development of a drug, which can take a decade from the time of discover to first availability. And hundreds of millions of dollars.
The FDA has also reissues patents for some drugs which keeps extending the date when generic versions can be introduced. Pfizer's Lipitor has patents dating back to the 80's and early 90's.
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