Guest guest Posted November 22, 2003 Report Share Posted November 22, 2003 Onbviously the authors have been very selective, showing only the material costs after research and devlopment costs, not including advertising and distribution costs and insurance (remember Thalidomide?) costs. Still it is a pretty sobering list when you consider the Congress and the president being so willing to prevent Americans from buying cheaper drugs. From California where a drug almost killed my friend. His wife drug him home from the bar and damned near beat him to death. Bill WHAT DRUGS REALLY COST 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. An independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make shows the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold in America. The chart below speaks for itself. Drug Retail Cost of 100 TABS Ingredients Cost Mark-up percentageCelebrex 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 CVS on every corner.................. 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! Also, when you fill a prescription at CVS, the minimum charge for any prescription – for 1 pill or 100 pills, regardless of what the actual cost may be – is $11.99. At Walgreens it’s $8.99…. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 10, 2004 Report Share Posted January 10, 2004 << WHAT DRUGS REALLY COST > >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. > >BRAND NAME OF DRUG >CONSUMER PRICE 100 TABS >COST OF GENERAL ACTIVE INGREDIENTS >PERCENT MARKUP > > Drug name Price/100 Cost Markup > 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 , 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. 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 60pills 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. >> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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