X-Message-Number: 23825
From: "Paul Pagnato" <>
Subject: Drug costs--very interesting
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2004 11:30:44 -0700
This is very interesting. The drug companies have been vilified for
over-charging for their medications and trying to explain that R&D and the
years waiting for FDA approval have added to the cost of the drugs. Now read
this and see where the real costs are added. Hmmm.
Please read this, it's very informative.
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%
Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone
I 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 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.
I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and
pasting it into your own email, and send it to everyone you know with an
email address.
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