Sharon L Davis

[Mags]

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.


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%


Norvasec 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 e-mail, and send it to
everyone you know with an e-mail address.


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: [email protected] >>

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Members don't see this ad.

 

[meg]

Isn't by increasing the price of generics how pharmacies make their profits? Because they can't increase on the brand because they're so expensive already. I thought that was how the community pharmacist made money. However, I don't know why walgreens, wal-mart, etc would do it.

 

[GravyRPH]

http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/generic.asp

 

[Sosumi]

That's like saying it costs less than a buck to burn a DVD for a video game. The true costs are in the time spent development and marketing of the video game and hence the $50 price tag. Same goes for drugs only magnified in research costs.

Also, as far as Costco's cheaper costs go, the pharmacist I worked with at Wal-Mart says that Sam's Clubs and those membership stores somehow can get around some laws thus allowing them to charge less for drugs than regular chain and retail stores since they're technically not in the same class of retail as Wal-Mart, Walgreens, etc.

 

[Caverject]

guys...the letter is bullsh**...read gravy's post

 

[jdpharmd?]

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.

Have you ever taken an economics class, ever? Do you think that the price of one raw ingredient somehow sets the price for the finished, marketed, tested, manufactured, researched, shipped, dispensed drug? This "letter" is so sad it's almost funny.

What's the "raw cost" of an apple? Oh my gosh, it's ZERO dollars! Apples grow on trees! But we sell them for 25 cents! That's a markup of infinity! Quick, call the FTC!!! That's price gouging!

EDIT: ...or I could have just clicked on Gravy's link before I wrote, which pretty much says the exact same thing as I just posted (near the bottom)...

 

[Caverject]

What's the "raw cost" of an apple? Oh my gosh, it's ZERO dollars! Apples grow on trees! But we sell them for 25 cents! That's a markup of infinity! Quick, call the FTC!!! That's price gouging!

 

[Mags]

Have you ever taken an economics class, ever? Do you think that the price of one raw ingredient somehow sets the price for the finished, marketed, tested, manufactured, researched, shipped, dispensed drug? This "letter" is so sad it's almost funny.

i hope you realize I didnt write that letter.. lol