Wow, no joke, costco really is selling the products. 37$ for a 3 pack for the largest size (its online, the link is ridiculously long, so you can look it up). That's about $12 a dose. I know at my clinic, we had promotions where buying a 6 pack would get you one free (and we even bumped it up to 2 free doses right before I left), but even then it was still about 13-15 a dose. We always price matched interceptor, but it seems a lot of people underestimated heart worm, and would neither purchase nor request a script.
I know that the VCA company is developing their own form of interceptor, with another additive (I wish I could remember what it was) that would make it just a little more useful than interceptor. Or was it geared toward replacing heartguard, as an option for those with heartworm? I honestly can't remember, I learned about it my last week. So look forward to that?
Definitely interesting to wonder where vets will actually make money. I know for me its definitely a touchy subject whenever someone assumes vets over charge, or that vets are rich, or even much beyond comfortable. Something's definitely going to happen with that. Hopefully some sort of insurance is made? I know it will be a headache for us to deal with that whole aspect of the medicine, but I think it could ultimately lead to better care for pets. People will scoff at a 10-20 dollar office visit, with maybe 100$ rads (obviously just throwing numbers out there), instead of paying 40-50 for an office visit, and 200+ for rads.
