REAL prescription drug costs: Be enlightened!

From RH Jones, March 11, 2008
Subject: Fw: REPLY Re: Prescription Drug costs-Read all the way to the end and COSTCO pricing

READ THIS TO THE END!!!!

The R&D as a percentage of gross sales is not outrageous.....much of it is paid by the Federal Government in the form of "research grants". The true ripoff occurs when the largest purchaser of prescription drugs, Medicare, is specifically prohibited from negotiating a discount for volume. The lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry worked very hard to get this provision in the law. Your Congressman and Senators are owned "lock, stock and barrel" by the pharmaceutical companies. They are the largest single contributor to Hillary's campaign. Expecting change in Washington? I don't think so. Former Congressman Billy Tauzin (D-La.) who headed the House committee governing all these issues recently "retired" from Congress and opened his Washing lobbying office with a $2.5 million dollar a year contract from the Pharmaceutical industry for "advice".

The identical drug that we pay for say $5.00 each in the US sells for $1.75 in Canada. Both produced in the same factory. Why? Because the Canadian government (this applies to pharmaceutical sales worldwide, not just Canada) sets the final retail price which incorporates a "reasonable profit". The US citizens pick up the slack which provide the phenomenal profits of the pharmaceutical industry by paying $5.00 for the same pill. The politicians wave the "price control" flag or "socialized medicine" flag to justify their actions.

Of course, you won't hear anyone talking about this in the current election cycle. They would rather talk about how Hillary did or did not vote in 2002... John McCain's temper and lots of other manure. Why don't NBC, FOX News etc. promote this issue? The need and want the pharmaceutical advertising dollars.

It will probably take $5.00 a gallon gasoline for the Citizens to rise up in revolt and throw the rascals out and start fresh.

Peter

Peter Peter O'Connell
Key Largo, FL
Phone: 305-509-2555
E-mail: pocrunner@aol.com

From: jsatkins@comcast.net To: aabascal@gunster.com, 3/9/2008
Subject: Prescription Drug costs-Read all the way to the end and COSTCO pricing

This is interesting reading – there is no mention of R&D in this which is a huge portion of prescription costs, but the price analysis is enlightening.

This is worth reading.

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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 , DC 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 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 .

Celebrex: 100 mg Consumer price ( 100 tablets): $130.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60 Percent markup: 21,712%

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Claritin: 10 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71 Percent markup: 30,306%

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. . Keflex: 250 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $157.39 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.88 Percent markup: 8,372%

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Lipitor: 20 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37 Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80 Percent markup: 4,696%

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Norvasc: 10 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14 Percent markup: 134,493%

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. . . .Paxil: 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60 Percent markup: 2,898%

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Prevacid: 30 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $44.77 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.01 Percent markup: 34,136%

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Prilosec : 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $360.97 Cost of general active ingredients $0.52 Percent markup: 69,417%

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Prozac: 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11 Percent markup: 224,973%

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Tenormin: 50 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $104.47 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.13 Percent markup: 80,362%

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Vasotec: 10 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $102.37 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.20 Percent markup: 51,185%

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Xanax: 1 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024 Percent markup: 569,958%

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Zestril:<> 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) $89.89 Cost of general active ingredients $3.20 Percent markup: 2,809

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Zithromax: 600 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19 Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78 Percent markup: 7,892%

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Zocor: 40 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $350.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $8.63 Percent markup: 4,059%.
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.Zoloft: 50 mg Consumer price: $206.87 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75 Percent markup: 11,821%

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Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone should know about this. 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 prices gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. 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 a re 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 t he 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.

I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and passing it into your own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail address. http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/generic.asp
Snopes.com confirms this.

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