"US taxpayers, not drug companies, fund or subsidise the bulk of basic research."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC544984/

Don't get your panties in a bunch girls! Its a hoax!
 

Monday, October 9, 2006

Costco Prescription Drug Email Is A Hoax

Summary: Do not believe any report where a government official claims to endorse any specific product or vendor.

This was one of the fastest hoaxes we have busted, probably because we are so used to busting false emails circulating that Boycott Watch has developed an eye for these things, and we have got myth-busting down to a science.

Here's the scoop: An email is circulating claiming a US Government official is telling people to go to Costco because they have gotten around high drug prices by buying off shore.

Here's the problem:
1) The alleged author of the email does not exist.
2) The phone number is assigned to a different department, and neither department deals in drugs or the pricing thereof.
3) Government officials are not permitted to recommend any specific brands or businesses.
4) The email does not take into account the recuperation of research expenses drug companies are entitled to.

The email is correct in the fact that you do not need to be a member of Costco to use their pharmacy and you will pay the same price members pay. As for prices, we did not compare the prices since generic and brand-name drug prices can fluctuate with the market and geographical location due to different shipping and other costs, therefore any comparison could be outdated before it was published, which poses another question into the validity of the email in question.

As for price, yes, generic drug prices are cheaper because the developing company has to pay for the research to create he drug that the generic manufacturer does not have to. This is why new medicines and name brand drugs cost more.

Conclusion: The email is a hoax, and may be either a stealth-marketing campaign for Costco or just a fake email from a satisfied Costco pharmacy customer. In either case, the numbers listed do not matter, as people can always save money buy shopping around for prescription drugs and optioning for generic equivalents, just as people can for anything they wish to purchase.

In summary, when an email circulated with a false signature, readers should be cautious when using the information, and the email in question has too many red flags for anyone to take it seriously, but some people will, which is why the email has been circulating, thus why we are publishing our report.




http://www.boycottwatch.org/misc/costco1.htm

http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/genericrx.html

Many of the larger drug makers in Europe, UK and Commonwealth nations sell their drugs for vastly inflated prices in the US.

So it is true that the US has been subsidizing countries with price controls for a long, long time. Drug companies will still sell at a loss to maintain market share.

Another odd symptom of other countries national health systems has been the large outflow of Doctors to the US. One of my doctors emigrated from Canada.

I imagine since we have subsiduary american drug manufactures in Canada. Our drugs should have a simular cost to yours. At least the drugs from your subsiduaries. I am afraid they are substantially cheaper. You are just a captive abused market in reality I fear. They do it to you just because they can. Even worse they make you believe their propaganda is a good possibility as well. There apparently are no limits to what they will do to serve their needs. To the best of my knowledge we do not have price controlls on drugs.

I cannot remember if it is seven out of eight or nine out of ten developed countries. They pretty well stopped the manipulation of their citizens in the health area to some extent. It is still moraly wrong to make excess money by third parties in health issues. In fact no third party should be anywhere near the field. It has been proven in this field the greed by them is excessive to put it mildly.

The development costs of drugs alone do not justify the high costs you are inflicted with. I suspect those costs are recovered quite fast in reality. Like the health care issue the propaganda is just unbelievable. And seemingly quite effective.

This whole area of health care and drugs is very dangerous to your long term well being. Every indicator I can think of points to a different economic situation at some point for both our countries. We are tied economically to you.

How the average american will get through a serious economy change health cost wise does concern me. The crunch will come when there are no takers for american debt I think. I do not have a crystal ball as to when. Yet cannot ignore that event as almost a certain possibility.

It is time to reduce the amount of money flowing to the top five percent of your society at your cost. You need a strong grass roots type of movement to overcome what has and is being done to you. All the mythology I have been reading for the last while around these issues is unbelievable.

I did not see Plavix listed.
My last refill cost me $90
My EBO form showed that prescription costing around $500
I feel sorry for those that don't have insurance to make up the difference.

I understand the R&D costs associated with a drug, they are quite high. My question is why say an inhaler that costs $120 here costs the equivalent of $.05 in Cuba? In Micheal Moores movie they went to Cuba and bought the exact same drugs you can get in the states for penny's on the dollar. Its well known that in pretty much every country besides ours you can do this.


Now whats going on here? Thats a big difference. Seems to me that the drug company's are screwing us over and I guess still making money everywhere else. Why else would they sell them overseas for a few bucks if they were losing money? If pills really had to be $2 a pop why do they sell them in Canada for so much less?

Sadly nothing will change because they have bought the government off.

Free market... that's the only thing I can say. Everybody involved playing the same game. Pharmaceutical, Insurance, Doctors, Hospitals.. you name it.
Back in the UK.... you walk into a pharmacy you pay (it was 4.60 pounds) and you get your prescription.... no other fees or payment. The pills could cost $0.01 or $1000.00 it doesn't matter. Here they keep telling the public that it could not be done.
Just saying....

So very true and the main reason is that here in the US there is not a single regulation regarding charges/payment for medical services. If a MD in the UK is working for lets say 100 000 pounds a year, here he can open a private clinic and charge whatever he/she wants. No wonder that they are trying to come over here.
In your job (whatever your doing) if you have a chance to go to Europe and earn 5/6 times more per year would you go? Yes you would, the same for them.
One of the reasons why I've moved to the US is that I can make about 20 to 25% more here but the cost of living is about 35% less so effectively I am making around 50 to 60% more. Simple.

If some of you want to list the drugs you take. I will ask my pharmacist for the retail cost here and post it as well.. Only need name and quantity of pills.

If it is not illegal to mail them over the border you may want to consider it. It probably is not illegal by the way. I could police it on my end if it was in your interest financially to do it. The drug stores would love the additional buisiness.

Just curiosity by you might apply. Private mail me if you wish. Or post on this site. I am starting to wonder what your drug insurance companies actually pay in reality after seeing the co pay on plavix. I think my wife takes them as well. Or has been taking them. That 500.00 would have been for a ninety day supply?

We ask and get all our long running prescriptions written for ninety days at a fill to the best of my knowledge. A really comon drug I take is 20mg lipitor pills for high colestral. It is the most expensive drug I take. My co pay is 30.00 for a three months supply. Since my co pay is thirty percent that indicates the prescription cost is about 85.00 . What is it there? Anyone know. Information for price comparison and it is a very common drug today.

All I really am aware of is my wife takes a small pile of prescription drugs since her heart attack six months ago. If she did not have a drug plan apparently we could get them free according to the hospital personel if we could not comforatably afford them. This I was unaware of before.

Actually we could also pay for them ourselves and would as we could afford them. Still would be several hundred dollars every three months I imagine.

Now if the plavix was five hundred alone for a three months supply might be a different story. What may be evident is that a lot of people with no drug plan and a minumal income may not be getting their prescriptions filled. More so in countries with inflated drug costs or endless games.

This is where my interest perks up. To have extreme profits it is evident that the money is more important than peoples survivability. This again is morally wrong.

Barry,
Here's some numbers for you. Copied from my online insurance claim report, so the alignment is not so good

Fill Date Drug Name Rx # Qty: Your Cost Retail Price* Estimated Savings

12/12/2008 METOPROLOL SUCC ER 25 MG TAB 6777175 90.000 $20.00 $78.43 $58.43
12/12/2008 NITROGLYCERIN 0.4 MG TAB SL 6777174 100.000 $12.99 $18.24 $5.25
11/06/2008 BENICAR 20 MG TABLET 6766426 90.000 $60.00 $196.89 $136.89
10/23/2008 CRESTOR 10 MG TABLET 6726879 90.000 $60.00 $357.41 $297.41
10/23/2008 NIASPAN 500 MG TABLET ER 6714640 90.000 $40.00 $213.91 $173.91
10/17/2008 PLAVIX 75 MG TABLET 6766427 90.000 $40.00 $499.35 $459.35
Total Rx's=20 $746.93 $4,062.71 $3,315.78

Thanks Stoneseller, I will post the costs here probably tomorrow as I cannot get to it today. A correction from my last post. My wife and myself were discussing this a little this morning. First of all my lipitor co pay is 60.00 for three months so the cost looks like 170 total rather than the 85.00 I thought she paid.

She is having her plavix refilled today so I can get an absolute figure on that one later today. She thinks about 275.00 canadian for three months supply as the retail price. Take this with a grain of salt until I get a bill for it though.The trouble is her copay is 5.00 through her plan on any prescription so we do not track her costs as easily as mine.

Remember for common sense purposes your dollar is always generally worth more than ours so that also works in your favour. I will also talk to our druggist about the legality of exporting prescriptions from his end. Really I cannot see a problem from this side of the border as the government is not involved.

From your side perhaps if the drug lobby is strong enough. As I see it they did stop those bus loads arriving on the drug shopping trips up here. Also I have not approached the discount pharmacies but will if enough iterest is shown. We have the american wallmart chain in town for example and others.

Lots of good info here. Good insight into the industry. One thing I might add is that when you buy a pharma product, don't forget that these companies are INTERNATIONAL and they make products for every living human on earth, not just the US or the UK or whatever.

There's a lot of politics and pressure on companies to provide their products to people who can't afford them in poorer countries. These products are provided free of charge or at substantial discounts. The companies also maintain a variety of discount programs for the retired and disabled in the US.

Every business unit of a company is either a profit center or a loss center and is maintained for a variety of political, financial or humanitarian reasons. Together, all of these units must generate a net profit or the company would not exist.

Granted, if the pharma companies only operated in well developed nations like the US, drug prices would probably be lower but who would stand by and say "tough" to people dying in 3rd world countries when simple drug or vaccine treatment is available through one of their products?

Is every life not of equal value?

So, to roughly sum up the costs of drug making, you can consider:

Staggering costs of R&D - billions for products that may or may not get to market.
Products that make it through the FDA certification process, make it to market but then, much later are found to have previously unknown, serious side effects.
Lawsuits for millions from a small minority of patients who suffer serious side effects. Sometimes there's a real backfire and a product harms a serious percent of patients resulting in a black box warning or the product gets pulled from the shelves which is a HUGE expense.
Political pressure to provide affordable products to everone in the world who needs them.
Voluntary humanitarian vaccine projects.
Pressure from generics.

All of these and more go into the price you pay.

Yes, but that is the restaurant's cost to get the food (mostly premade) from the box they get it in to the counter, not the cost of the raw materials. The raw materials are much cheaper than what it sells for at the counter at McDonalds.

Everything comes at a cost. Everyone needs to make a living. That said...the markups on BRAND NAME drugs are ridiculous. Generics are the same and cost much less. All you pay for is the money they need to make back on advertising.

Its not a free market thats the problem.

If it was a free market I would be able to buy my drugs from any country of my choosing. We also would subsidize them to the tune of $50b a year.

Nope the American people are getting screwed, thats whats happening.

Only certain kinds of doctors are coming here. Primary care physicians for example are better off elsewhere. Surgeons on the other hand can make significantly more.