Obscene Drug Mark Ups
 

Well we all know the drug companies make obscene profits but little did I know just how obscene they really are when it comes to ripping off an ever increasing number of sick people in the world.

The following is incredible. Make sure to keep reading to the bottom where it discusses Costco, Sam's Club, etc. The women who wrote this email and signed below are Federal Budget Analysts in Washington, DC :

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 State 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 Percen t 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): $10237 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 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 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 ...

3000 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 prescr iption 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, Sam's Club and other discount volume stores consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs.

I went to the discount store's website, 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, Comparing, 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 another discount store for $28.08. I would like to mention, that although these are 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 passing it into your own email, and send it to everyone you know with an email address.

Sharon L. Davis, Budget Analyst, US Department of Commerce Room 6839 Office Ph: 202-482-4458; Office Fax: 202-482-5480 Email Address: sdavis@docgov

Mary Palmer, Budget Analyst, Bureau of Economic Analysis Office of Budget & Finance; Voice: (202) 606-9295

There are two sides to this having working in pharmacuticals. First let me say that yes there is a huge markup and yes some of it is very unecessary and if they spent more time on R&D and less on filling the airwaves with crap the markup would not be as bad.
But in their defense they have to make a big profit on the drugs that they sell to recoup their losses. The pharmicutical business isn't like most. If they have 15 projects and 1 goes to market its been a good year. But most Pharma companies have 30-50 drugs in the R&D pipeline at all times. The cost of investigating all of these is huge, no really its huge! So when they get a drug that works they need to finance more drugs in the pipeline and make some money back.
Now as I said before they don't need to mark them up that much....

My only frame of reference is in the golf/turf/crop protection industry. There are basic manufacturers and generic manufacturers. The basic takes the active ingredient from inception, patent, through the R&D process, then through EPA registration, through production and product support. The process from development to getting EPA approval to individual state approval (which may surpass federal standards) averages millions of dollars and 7 years per patented product. The patent is generally filed after inception so those first 7 years, money is poured into R&D and registration before the product is even brought to market and promoted leaving an average of 13 years for the basic manufacturer to first recoup their costs and then make a profit. And this is just for plant protection. Throw those costs and the liability potential on top for something a human will ingest.

Once the patent runs out, generic manufacturers jump into the market needing only EPA registration and marketing money to start selling the same active ingredient, in our industry manufactured primarily in China or India, and flood the market.

If there is no incentive to come up with new, improved or better products do you think there are companies that will just do it out of the goodness of their hearts? I don't.

You probably don't want to know what the raw materials of a cup of supersized Coke at McDonalds is, the raw material costs of a Starbuck's frappacino, or a new Mercedes is . . .

When I worked at McDonald's years ago, the manager told us we broke even on the sandwich, made a little profit on the fries, and made most of our money on the drinks.

well, good for you that you found a way to reduce your drug costs. that is the market at work. all companies that have to develop a product under government scrutiny have massive costs involved. compound that with the fact that pharma develops the actual drug that makes people better and you have a unique situation. I assure you that if you think government regulation of thier profit is going to help, you are naive. that will drive out most new drug development and leave the market for new drugs wanting.

BTW, dont look at the profit margin for aircraft parts either....

somewhat related: the insurance industry itself runs on an average of 6%...less than a lot of industries...

no, I dont work for either industry....

I can understand your anger over this article, however there is a flip side to this.
For the last 14 years (till 2006) I was working for a pharmaceutical company (I was PM not a Doctor or medical personnel). It was American company dealing with clinical research (3rd phase only) This is the phase when for the first time a real drug is given to a real patients in clinical trials after FDA have given you green light for that.
In average study you have around 45/60 clinical sites with about 30 to 45 patients per site. Usual 3rd phase last between 6 months and 3 years.
Now I will not bombard you with numbers, I can let you do the math.

So:
One study : 45 to 60 Doctors: 90 to 120 Nurses : 1500 to 2500 patients provided with free drugs during the study, over 75% reimbursed for participating in the study. Shipping samples (overnight DHL, UPS etc, because the blood is with 48 hours window shipped in dry ice) to regional FDA approved testing Labs ; Lab costs : Production cost of this TEST drugs.... I can go for hours... and this is JUST the 3rd phase of the developing new drugs. Usually from the moment someone start developing new drug to the moment they hit the stock in your drug store take 5 or 6 phases and in average 7 years....

I don't want to argue with you, I am just laying down the facts.

Did the pharmaceutical companies make money? HELL YES, A LOT OF MONEY, but the investment before the profit is beyond your wildest dream...trust me on this one I have seen this numbers day in and day out.

Once again remember your Tylenol or Advil took between 5 and 7 years and perhaps between 10000 to 20000 people involved before you can buy it.... Not to mention that after they trow down the money during this 5 to 7 years FDA could say NO...all the investments are GONE down the drain. Perhaps you think that this would never happen...I know that could happen... I witnessed how a company have abandoned a research after 4 phases (5 years) because of FDA saying NO. Can you imagine the money they have lost?

Just saying :)

I agree with the others that this is not an appropriate way to analyze drug costs. The active ingredients are not the major expense for the drug companies. If you limit there profits, they will simply reduce their R&D efforts on drugs that they don't expect to have a large market. I don't think that is the outcome we are looking for.

I understand the frustration, I pay several $100 per month (just in co-pays) for prescriptions for a family member. I do think the system needs to be reformed, but the drug companies are not really the villains here. Would you prefer to nationalize the pharmaceutical industry?

Drugs are cheaper in other countries, why is that? Before the drug companies complained and got it made illegal, busloads of seniors took organised trips to Canada to buy drugs at a considerable discount. Seems to me the free market here is a de facto subsidisation of the drug companies by Americans.

That is true, so what should we do?

Do you want to limit the price of U.S. drugs (which would reduce R&D)?

Do you want to subsidize the cost of U.S. drugs (a form of national health care)?

Do you want to use tax money to pay for all R&D (nationalize the industry)?

Do you want to somehow force the industry to increase the prices of their exported products?

I don't see a free lunch (easy solution) here.

I think we should pay the same as other countries. If that's not enough for the Pharmas, then they can raise the price for everyone. I suggest you read up on how the Prescription drug Act works if you think we don't already subsidize drug costs.

I do understand that the U.S. customers are subsidizing drug costs. How would you resolve this without putting the U.S. government in the pharmaceutical business?

Do you believe the U.S. government has the authority to control the prices that a private business charges for their products (in the U.S. and in the rest of the world)?

Can the U.S. government tell ford that they have to charge the same price for a car in the U.S. and in mexico?

Should the U.S. reduce or remove pattern protection for drugs that they judge to be overpriced (what affect would that have on R&D)?

It's not that simple.

I don't know what you do for living but you are very well informed about the pharmaceutical R&D.... not many people really know how much money and effort a simple pill take. :thumbup1:

I think the answer is to have a discussion with your doctor over which drugs are appropriate, including cost as one of the many considerations, then shop around, buy generic when possible, and get the best prices whenever you can.

I agree, that's about all the individual can do.

Bull$hit, when it comes to people living or dieng, I think someone should step in. If the REAL people that work can't afford their medicine, who is going to do the work. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

I think you're making it complicated. Cars are not drugs, so let's not get into silly comparisons. The government has the authority to do just about anything, consider the Patriot Act if you will.
Right now the g'ment subsidizes the drug industry to the tune of about $50 billion a year. So I think the g'ment can easily apply price controls.
It's time we stopped supporting the rest of the world with drugs, military and who knows what else.

Following that...

"A friend of a friend" have mention that you could approach the Pharma company direct and they have a way to subsidy drug sale to the public without good income...shall we say.... There is not any kind of verification of your income....it is very quick procedure... perhaps you should give it a try if you need drugs... As I wrote someone told me this :rolleyes:
Please don't quote me on it ;) I will deny any involvement in this information. Get in touch with local office, public relation office etc.

Agreed Sir. :D

One time last Spring I had to have a prescription filled that I normally get at Costco for around $7. Our Costco Pharmacy is not open on Sunday, other wise I would not have considered buying them somewhere else.

Since it was a drug that has been out for 40 years, I assumed it might be on Wal-Marts list of $4 drugs. No such luck, the price for a 30 day supply was $28 the first time, and when I went to refill it a month later it had gone up to $32. I declined, then went to Costco and had them transfer the Prescription instead. Costco had lowered their price to $5.80, so I was quite happy I had. Last I refilled it was only$5.18.

That's probably the scariest thing I've heard all day. :eek:

I think you've answered my question, you want the government to apply price controls to individual drugs. I assume you also want the government to decide which drugs are developed and to subsidize their R&D?

I want pay what the rest of the world pays for drugs.
You want to be ripped off, and subsidize the government run health care in other countries. Now that is scary.

Now THIS IS THE the scariest thing I've heard all day. If this ever happen Auschwitz will sound like country club....:mad:

I understand, my daughter has one prescription that retails for over $1200 for a 30 day supply, I only pay $40 after insurance. Luckily, I have good insurance coverage. However, I also realize that this drug would not exist if they had not been allowed to recover their development costs.

... and I want a pony, but that isn't going to make it happen.

I'm asking how you would accomplish these goals, what specific policy changes would you recommend to make this happen? How would you do this without interfering with the development of new drugs?

Sorry if I'm making it complicated.

I don't think that you do making this complicated it is just that the people don't really know how much it cost to develop a single drug...
Let me share some info published by FDA.
"For the period between 1995 and 2000 the average drug development was 10 years and the average cost is $960 000 000."

THIS IS FOR ONE DRUG ONLY...... you do the math.. how many lines of drugs you have in your Costco, Samsclub etc.....

Why would making the drug companies charge a universal price affect R&D?
Why do you want to subsidize healthcare in other countries?

I am sorry Chas but this time you are so wrong.
Do you think that the US is the ONLY country in the world that produces drugs???
I can tell you from experience that the rest of the world as you call them (the other countries) keep the US prices DOWN.

A clinical trial in Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine cost about 70% cheaper than the same clinical trial in US, UK, France etc.

MD participating in one of the ex socialist countries working for a free laptop and about $250.00 a month... The MD in western world would not talk for less than several thousand PER patient. Not to mention that the patient in those Ex countries receiving about $100.00 a head for the WHOLE clinical trial. Here in the US..... they get paid for transport to and from the clinic, lost wages, attendance fee......How I know that?? I've worked for a Pharma company for 14 years as a Project Manager.

I really thing you should read a bit more on the subject...

Really? You don't understand how fixing drug prices would affect their ability/willingness to develop new drugs (including drugs that may have very small markets)?

These are businesses (with stockholders), they are not going to expend resources developing a product unless they believe they will recover their costs and make a profit in an acceptable amount of time. If you want to control prices, you will have to address this fact.

I don't think the US is the only country producing drugs. And I never made such a claim.
Do you think drugs made in other countries sell in the country of manufacture for what they sell here?

"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.

Stoneseller first. I called my pharmacist and asked him for a three months supply of all your itemised drugs. He phoned back an itemised list. For ease of reading now I will give a direct corelation on each drugs price a little later.

Basically what you suggest has a combined retail of slightly over four thousand dollars you state. Has a high retail that I could get cheaper with little effort of 939.00 Canadian dollars here. Less of course with the american money exchange factor. Our drugs are not substidized either.

Also if I were to use my agressive approach to get the best price somewhere we would land up at about your copay price for the whole package. Or very slightly more.

This is much sadder than I thought it would be. I expected about half price at best. Certainly not less than a quarter of your prices. Now the hard part. My pharmasist said he couild fill american prescriptions or script when I called. This certainly was possible awhile ago.

What frightens me now is the drug cartel may attempt to might buy our political system at some point. It appears to be well worth the cost for them. We would put our politicians in jail though. Thats after we turfed their party out totally. It is too dangerous to their well being for them to engage in your countries games.

Well your drug industry cartel or government has been busy. They are the same vehicle I now expect for all practical purposes.... New law is prescription must be made out by a practising physician in Canada now. My pharmisist rechecked the current status.

Unfortunatly this only helps substantiate what I have been feeling for some time. Your whole political machine has been purchased lock stock and barrel by the drug cartel and health insurance industry. I would like to see their books to see exactly how much per year your political system is taking from them. Gotta be at least a billion. Perhaps many of them. I never realised you were socialised to this extent. :D We seem to have a free market in comparison. At least in healthcare and drugs.

You should try to find a developed country that you could get your prescriptions filled in. It might last until your government intervened. Sorry it could not be us. I will post the itemised comparison price list after supper is finished. If the drug industry are short of research and development funds and they are not. They could just stop buying all the politcal system for awhile. They would be okay still controlling only a segment of it.

When you get past all the retoric. I see it as a direct uncaring attack on ninety five percent of your population. If the elite cared about people at all this situation would not exist. It is worse than corruption in my mind. People can perish as a direct result.

I have to assume that the figure of 4,062 dollars is your calcualtion for a three months total retail cost supply by adding shorter prescriptions up to total a three months supply. I really hope some mathamatical error exists at your end. If not it is bad.

Well here we go. Metoprolol 25 mg tablets. Your quote 90.00 per prescription. Mine 13.49 for three months supply. Nitroglycerine I assume patches of .4 mg. Your prescription 100.00. three month supply 71.51. I assumed you are using the much more expensive patches at this dosage. Bennicar 20 mg 196.89. Three months supply 107.00. Crestor 10 mg 357.44. Three months supply 144.00 or if drugist splits 20 mg pills into two 90.00. Niaspan 500 mg 213.91. Three months supply 128.02. Plavix 75 mg 499.35 Three months supply 267.49.... Please review your math that stated the retail cost of your prescriptions is a shade higher than four thousand dollars for a three month period. I would hate to spread misinformation. Also the best of luck and thanks for helping get some answers people can understand perhaps. Americans have always been good to me in my extensive travels years ago. I would like to see you treated a little more fairly is about it.

I'm pretty content spending what I do on prescription drugs. My insurance policy is a decent one, so my out of pocket is certainly well within a reasonable range.
I have to say I was shocked when I looked at a statement from my insurance Co & saw what the "retail" price of my drugs is. At this point in time, I'm not inclined to exert any effort to save a few bucks. Come retirement & the end of company paid insurance policies, my view may well change.

A lot of your population canot afford or from other factors have no drug coverage. They are probably the only ones paying retail. Your insurance company might only pay about the prices here possibly. Your co pay should be based on their actual payout. But we both have reached the age to know it does not quite work as it should.

When my wife was getting close to retirement she found the option with blue cross of extending it into her retirement years up to age 65 for a hundred a month. Copay of 5.00 per prescription filling. Since the premium was fairly small I did not care one way or another. Then the major heart attack occured.

One of her drugs was really very expensive here. It is used for the first three months. I suspect that drug is so expensive stateside your drug plans may block it's use. Did you get another drug as well for the first period? Even here doctors have to sign a form for prescribing that particular drug. This may be one drug blue cross will not easily cover. Especially if a doctor prescribes it to many patients. I do not remember how costly it was. I should have looked.

Are you sure your not seeing my wife? ;) A lot of those drugs both of you have in common. The dosages are a little different though.

Anyways my wife is about back to normal now with little possibility of another event. This event seemed to be a watershed in my life. I had no ideal how I would go on alone. For a couple of days there it looked like I might have to. They talk about a wake up call.

Thanks again for your participation. If nothing else it gets people thinking. That factor alone is usually good. As you said though it is very fortunate you have a good drug plan and I agree. Many do not.