Prescription drug mark-up

Maybe Rush was just trying to save money.

My friend Marty, who for some reason sends me email under the name of Carol (what are you trying to say, Martin?), forwards the following:

WHAT DRUGS REALLY COST

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 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 chart below speaks for itself. This is based on 100 pills.

BRAND	STRENGTH	WE PAY	STORE COST	MARK UP
Celebrex	100 mg	$130.27	$0.60	21,712%
Claritin	10 mg	$215.17	$0.71	30,306%
Keflex	250 mg	$157.39	$1.88	8,372%
Lipitor	20 mg	$272.37	$5.80	4,696%
Norvasc	10 mg	$188.29	$0.14	134,493%
Paxil	20 mg	$220.27	$7.60	2,898%
Prevacid	30 mg	$44.77	$1.01	34,136%
Prilosec	20 mg	$360.97	$0.52	69,417%
Prozac	20 mg	$247.47	$0.11	224,973%
Tenormin	50 mg	$104.47	$0.13	80,362%
Vasotec	10 mg	$102.37	$0.20	51,185%
Xanax	1mg	$136.79	$0.024	569,958%
Zestril	20 mg	$89.89	$3.20	2,809%
Zithromax	600mg	$1,482.19	$18.78	7,892%
Zocor	40mg	$350.27	$8.63	4,059%
Zoloft	50mg	$206.87	$1.75	11,821%

...It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreens 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.

See Also: http://www.detnow.com/news/020925-drugchart.html

The fault doesn't lie "clearly" with the pharmacies, however, as the message says. It's a well-oiled racket involving kickbacks and intermingled company interests. And it's spawned a nice illegal racket on the side. When there's that much profiteering to be exploited, there will always be a criminal parallel.

Just goes to show you that when drug manufacturers, pharmacies, insurance companies, and prescribing doctors all work together what wonders they can perform. A lesson in the virtue of cooperation.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.