Drug Prices Increase 2014 - Why?

[pharmald]

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Hello Colleagues:

I just wanted to verify with someone that may know why drug prices are increasing so dramatically? I just verified a couple of drugs like Promethazine suppositories, Captopril, Enalapril, etc and their prices have increased like a 1000%

Any idea why? Is it a raw product that has increase in price? Is it scam within the pharmaceuticall industry?

This is really killing community pharmacies cash sales.

TIA

 

[Wheresmyaricept]

We've noticed it at the chains too...

A 1000ct bottle of digoxin is over 800 dollars...

Not that it actually effects us like it effects independents.

 

[fauxden]

I heard it was due to ACA. Could be rumor, I have no idea. But what I heard was that the ACA is going to restrict generic mfg from raising prices over X amount. To avoid not being able to raise prices over the X over the next few years they decided to just go ahead and raise them horrendously high from the get go.

 

[maria1oh]

I wonder how Walmart and Kroger can keep their prices at $4.

 

[Old Timer]

I heard it was due to ACA.

Please explain how this is the ACA. How could the ACA possibly do this?

Could be rumor, I have no idea.

The I have no idea part has merit.

But what I heard was that the ACA is going to restrict generic mfg from raising prices over X amount. To avoid not being able to raise prices over the X over the next few years they decided to just go ahead and raise them horrendously high from the get go.

Did you hear this on the Sean Hannity show? What you are seeing is the consolidation in the generic industry. When you get down to one or two suppliers and then one of them usually a foreign company in India or China ****s up their quality control and you are off to the races. Almost all of the shortage in injectable medications is due to the fact there is one company making the glass vials. Have you seen how many recalls there have been due to glass vial defects that have allowed shards of glass to be potentially delivered to the patient.

 

[Doctor M]

Please explain how this is the ACA. How could the ACA possibly do this?


The I have no idea part has merit.



Did you hear this on the Sean Hannity show? What you are seeing is the consolidation in the generic industry. When you get down to one or two suppliers and then one of them usually a foreign company in India or China ***** up their quality control and you are off to the races. Almost all of the shortage in injectable medications is due to the fact there is one company making the glass vials. Have you seen how many recalls there have been due to glass vial defects that have allowed shards of glass to be potentially delivered to the patient.

this is it.

 

[fauxden]

Please explain how this is the ACA. How could the ACA possibly do this?


The I have no idea part has merit.



Did you hear this on the Sean Hannity show? What you are seeing is the consolidation in the generic industry. When you get down to one or two suppliers and then one of them usually a foreign company in India or China ***** up their quality control and you are off to the races. Almost all of the shortage in injectable medications is due to the fact there is one company making the glass vials. Have you seen how many recalls there have been due to glass vial defects that have allowed shards of glass to be potentially delivered to the patient.

Wow, relax. When I worked retail I had a number of people telling me this. It doesn't sound so far fetched does it? I guess my statement that "it could be a rumor, I have no idea" wasn't enough of a disclaimer for you. Sorry about that. So no, I didn't hear it on Sean Hannity...

 

[trailerpark]

I did a APPE at a independent and the owner was telling me with Obama Care drug manufactures couldn't raise prices without government approval so they were raising prices dramatically before the law takes effect. He was telling me about certain drugs and their prices sky rocketed.

 

[npage148]

It's the same reason doxy was going for some insane prices a couple years ago. Supply and demand.

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

It's the same reason doxy was going for some insane prices a couple years ago. Supply and demand.

This.

All of the drugs where there are insanely high prices are due to lack of generic competition. Digoxin is crazy because there is only one generic manufacturer for the drug..., and no brand name competition.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I did a APPE at a independent and the owner was telling me with Obama Care drug manufactures couldn't raise prices without government approval so they were raising prices dramatically before the law takes effect. He was telling me about certain drugs and their prices sky rocketed.

If you are going to collude to raise prices, why would you wait until the government caps prices when there were no price controls before? This is illogical. Why were they not doing this before? And as far as I know, there isn't any sort of major price control in the legislature is there? I recall this being one of my main complains about the act. The world will continue to allow us to subsidize their healthcare. They should send us a card. "Thanks, America!"

-----

I think the real explanation will be that its stemming from the real increased demand from Obamacare...and this is giving the generic manufacturers the excuse to collude and come out with nonsense shortages. Personally, I think a bunch of dudes in suits will be appearing before congress in 7 years or so and be summarily slapped on their wrists for conspiring to take billions from consumers.

 

[el_duderino]

I think the real explanation will be that its stemming from the real increased demand from Obamacare...and this is giving the generic manufacturers the excuse to collude and come out with nonsense shortages. Personally, I think a bunch of dudes in suits will be appearing before congress in 7 years or so and be summarily slapped on their wrists for conspiring to take billions from consumers.

Depends on the makeup of Congress and the next President, I think. I'm sure there are plenty of people (common folk and politicians alike) who are experiencing something like glee over this. Any "bad thing" that can be blamed on the ACA is just more ammunition.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Depends on the makeup of Congress and the next President, I think. I'm sure there are plenty of people (common folk and politicians alike) who are experiencing something like glee over this. Any "bad thing" that can be blamed on the ACA is just more ammunition.

It won't matter. The Republicans won't be able to reverse the Act. The Democrats are too in bed with Big Pharma to limit their earning potential.

There really isn't that big of a difference between the parties. Obama has proven this. What are his accomplishments? Increased income stratification into the hands of the upper 0.01%? In 2010 he had the lowest effective upper class tax rate in the history of income tax. It was like 16% or something. A healthcare law that forces the purchase of privatized, corporate health plans? The dude he ran against for president literally did the same thing as the governor of his state. It was comical watching them pretend like their ideologies were just soooo different. Its red team vs blue team. Like Ford vs Chevy in Nascar. They are the same damned car, just with different stickers on the exterior.

Look, Bush Jr just happened to be an elite idiot and ushered in an era of Republican idiocy that won't be matched for some time. The level of stupid-crazy from 2001-2008 is going to linger for a while. The last time there was one as dumb as him was Warren Harding. So maybe a once-in-80-years type of thing. I don't blame the Republicans. The man was a statistical oddity. The crossroads of a legacy candidate and the feeling of invincibility from a solid 50 years of solid economic growth that made people think making a idiot that could barely string together a sentence president was a good idea. But I'm willing to call mulligan. Its cool. And eventually, the crazier Republicans will go away and the big debate will go back to whether the upper class should pay 36% or 39% income tax as if its that big of a difference. As its always been since the mid 40s. We just happen to be in strange days.

 

[pharmald]

Thanks a lot for the info guys. Guess it all makes sense. The ACA, supply/demand and the pharmaceutical industry knowing they can get away with anything. Keep posting, because this is getting really interesting.

 

[Old Timer]

Thanks a lot for the info guys. Guess it all makes sense. The ACA, supply/demand and the pharmaceutical industry knowing they can get away with anything. Keep posting, because this is getting really interesting.

NO, it's not due to the ACA. Get that idea out of your addled mind. It's due to consolidation in the drug industry, the LACK of any government price controls and the poor quality of foreign manufactures creating shortages.

 

[MountainPharmD]

NO, it's not due to the ACA. Get that idea out of your addled mind. It's due to consolidation in the drug industry, the LACK of any government price controls and the poor quality of foreign manufactures creating shortages.

WRONG! Its absolutely because of the Affordable Care Act. Do a little research before you let your biased east coast liberal views show. Obama is not God and the Affordable Care Act is crap.

The Affordable Care Act modified the previous statutory provisions that required the Secretary to establish a Federal Upper Limit (FUL) for multiple source drugs. Effective October 1, 2010, the Social Security Act was revised to require that the Secretary calculate a FUL as no less than 175 percent of the weighted average (determined on the basis of utilization) of the most recently reported monthly average manufacturer prices (AMP) for pharmaceutically and therapeutically equivalent multiple source drug products that are available for purchase by retail community pharmacies on a nationwide basis. In order to facilitate this change, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued draft AMP-based FUL reimbursement files (for review and comment only) for multiple source drugs, including the draft methodology used to calculate the FULs. These draft AMP-based FUL prices are based on the most recently reported monthly AMP and AMP unit data.

 

[MountainPharmD]

http://www.ncpanet.org/newsroom/new...-demand-congressional-hearing-pharmacists-say

http://fox4kc.com/2013/08/14/rising-cost-some-of-generic-drugs-set-to-shock-consumers/

 

[el_duderino]

http://www.ncpanet.org/newsroom/new...-demand-congressional-hearing-pharmacists-say

http://fox4kc.com/2013/08/14/rising-cost-some-of-generic-drugs-set-to-shock-consumers/

From your link:

"He also suspects some manufactures are trying to maximize profits before all elements of the Affordable Care Act go into effect. "

That's the only mention of the ACA in either of these links. It seems difficult to blame the ACA if manufacturers are trying to maximize profits before the ACA goes into effect.

How is this the ACA's fault? I don't say that as a challenge, I am honestly curious. I'm not familiar enough with the law to understand how it could cause this rise in prices.

 

[MountainPharmD]

The ACA is one of the most poorly written pieces of legislation since Medicare Part D...maybe of all time. It was written by idiots, read by no one and passed by the most corrupt and worthless group of politicians to ever disgrace Washington.

This is a case of the law of unintended consequences. The drug manufacturers are exploiting a piece of the legislation pertaining to how the Federal Upper Limit for multisource medications will be calculated.

 

[Old Timer]

The ACA is one of the most poorly written pieces of legislation since Medicare Part D...maybe of all time. It was written by idiots, read by no one and passed by the most corrupt and worthless group of politicians to ever disgrace Washington.

This is a case of the law of unintended consequences. The drug manufacturers are exploiting a piece of the legislation pertaining to how the Federal Upper Limit for multisource medications will be calculated.

Just because the ACA sucks has nothing to do with price increases. This is simple oligopoly or monopoly. The ACA information keeps prices low, sometimes lower than cost depending how they calculate FUL. There are ZERO facts to back up your assertion.

 

[zelman]

WRONG! Its absolutely because of the Affordable Care Act. Do a little research before you let your biased east coast liberal views show. Obama is not God and the Affordable Care Act is crap.

Federal Upper Limits Prior to the Affordable Care Act
In 1987, regulations limited the amount which Medicaid could reimburse for drugs with available generic drugs under the Federal Upper Limit (FUL) Program. These limits are intended to assure that the Federal government acts as a prudent buyer of drugs. The concept of the upper limits program is to achieve savings by taking advantage of the current market prices.

How does methods of calculating reimbursement by government programs effect wholesale/retail prices? Help me connect the seemingly random statements you're making.

 

[pharmald]

Zelman some are saying (in my understanding) that because the ACA will force some type of price regulation in the future (I don't know what regulation is that) drugs manufacturers are increasing their prices now to maximize their profit now before the law goes into effect.

Others are saying that it has nothing to do with the ACA and it is just because supply for some meds is short (crappy foreign product) or there is only one manufacturer creating the drug so they take advantage and up their price because they can and nobody regulates them.

I have no idea if any of this is true, but it is USA and that is how this country works and people in this forums are very smart!

Don't fight 🙂

 

[owlegrad]

I think we can all agree that every bad thing, especially in healthcare, is due to the ACA.