| PLEASE READ AND REPOST |
[Apr. 14th, 2005|03:39 pm] |
X-POSTED
Rx Cost
..let's hear it for Costco!! (This is just mind-boggling!)
Make sure you read all the way past the list of the drugs
The woman that signed below is a Budget Analyst out
of federal Washington, D.C. offices.
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 $2.00 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 muchprofit drug companies really
make,
we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the
most popular
drugs sold in America.
The chart below speaks for itself.
Celebrex 100 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60
Percent markup: 21,712%
Claritin 10 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71
Percent markup: 30,306%
Keflex 250 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $157.39
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.88
Percent markup: 8,372%
Lipitor 20 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80
Percent markup: 4,696%
Norvasc 10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14
Percent markup: 134,493%
Paxil 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60
Percent markup: 2,898%
Prevacid 30 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $44.77
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.01
Percent markup: 34,136%
Prilosec 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $360.97
Cost of general active ingredients $0.52
Percent markup: 69,417%
Prozac 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11
Percent markup: 224,973%
Tenormin 50 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $104.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.13
Percent markup: 80,362%
Vasotec 10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $102.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.20
Percent markup: 51,185%
Xanax 1 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024
Percent markup: 569,958%
Zestril 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) $89.89
Cost of general active ingredients $3.20
Percent markup: 2,809%
Zithromax 600 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19
Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78
Percent markup: 7,892%
Zocor 40 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $350.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $8.63
Percent markup: 4,059%
Zoloft 50 mg
Consumer price: $206.87
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75
Percent markup: 11,821%
Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought
everyone knew 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 $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.
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 $54.99 for 60 pills at
CVS. I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills
for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57.
I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08.
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 into your own email, and send it to everyone you know
with an email address.
Sharon L. Davis
Budget Analyst
U.S. Department of Commerce
Room 6839
Office Ph: 202-482-4458
Office Fax: 202-482-5480
Email Address: sdavis@doc.gov |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
eloise_thirteen's journal
