got this in an email snoops verified







Let's hear it for Costco!! (This is just mind-boggling!) Make sure you
read all the way past the list of the drugs. The woman that signed
below is a Budget Analyst out of federal Washington , DC offices.

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 data 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%

Norvasc: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 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)

This is true in Canada, too. 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

Buy it in Asia - pays for the vacation.

Mike

Everyone bitches about cost of drugs, but they'd bitch even more if they were dead because they didn't have them.

As someone who is heavily invested in biopharma companies, I can tell you that these guys burn thru HUNDREDS of millions of dollars to try and often not succeed in getting one new drug to the market.

A good friend of mine, the smartest guy I know, has a sister who he says is smarter than he is, a Doctor who works for CDC in Atlanta. She and all of her fellow physicians are EXTREMELY concerned over drug resistant mutations of viruses. She thinks the next big plague will be from this, primarily caused, in her opinion, by the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture. I've committed some funds, but because the category is so dangerous, not a lot of funds to a couple of companies that are working on preventitive drug development. Let's all hope they are successful, we might need them in the worst way.

Few people know this little known statistic, but by checking into a hospital as a patient, you have OVER a 1 % chance of dying, just because you're in the hospital, the death having nothing to do with your reason for being there.

Good post gatogordo.
I’m on a few drugs that will extend my life as a healthy person.
Not too many years ago, those drugs did not exist.
I’m sure as hell glad that these drug companies have R&D departments even if a single pill costs a lot.

Good point, Gato. but do you think that people like Sharon will pay any attention since it doesn't suit her agenda.

Drug-resistant bacteria are often enough found in hospitals. Best not to go if not necessary and don't overstay your welcome if you do.
The next level of defense is probably the use of bacteriophages, viruses that eat specific bacteria for lunch. The Ganges River is full of them.
Research is very expensive, there is no known way to determine who will create the next innovation or when.

We have Kaiser, relatively less expensive as they run their own hospitals. I am a little curious about Costco now, though. We go there for food.

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...rug-price-hikes.html

Guys like Shkreli give everyone in the industry a bad name.

I agree the original analysis presented is ridiculous. Having said that, big pharma is a major problem related to the cost of the healthcare system. I will give you one little example.

I used to get gout in my right foot. The doctor puts me on this drug called Duexis. It works, no more gout. Fantastic.

Somehow or another, I find out it costs $2,400 a month. I tell my wife (who is an orthopedic surgeon). She doesn't believe me and looks it up. I was right. She is pissed.

We stop at Walgreen's. She comes back with 2 bottles and tells me to buy them. I buy them. For less than $20, I just bought over the counter, the EXACT same thing that is in Duexis. The only difference is that I take 4 pills instead of 1.

Then you find out that the drug companies handle Duexis in such a way to STOP you from finding out what is costs.

This is total BS and should be stopped.

Several years ago when I still smoked cigarettes my Dr. prescribed me Chantix (a stop smoking aid). I took it for a while but the insurance would not budge on the price. Seems to me it was in their interest that I quit smoking. Anyway the pills did'nt do it;my epiphany was when I went for surgery for a detached retina there was some other guy across the way with hoses going in + out + right there I quit.

I do believe that the pharmacy companies to over charge to a degree. However, the
original "ingredient" price only represents part of what would go in to the production.

I agree with what was said, we complain about this but it is our health! I am glad to pay for meds

We should be complaining about other costs! To replace my 2012 F-350, it would cost me $60k+. These are
the costs that are ridiculous.

True that.In 1974 I could buy a new Ford F-150 for $4500.00 while making $160.00 a week. Do the math;it does not add up .

Not to defend big pharma, but we are ignoring the research costs to create and do the required studies the drugs in the first place, and then the lawsuits brought by those that suffer the medical contraindications on the package.

Then there is the pure greed factor all the way from the CEO all the away to the stockholders.

What about the CEO that bumped the cost of the epi pen for no reason other than to get a big increase in salary. Her stockholders should have rode her out of town on a rail.

At least her action did get some more jobs out there as replacements for their product came forward.
All in all, not having medicine, doctors care and hospitals may well lead to our death, just as having medicines, doctors care and hospitals may kill us.

Again like someone said, that is how can the big names can afford to have their pharmacy on every corner?

I got a sinus infection on a recent trip (last month) to Thailand. My wife went to a local pharmacy and got 12 amoxicillin capsules. Total cost $2.00 USD. Total time spent 15 minutes.

Cleared up the infection no problem (and yes I took all the capsules).

Now that is cheap healthcare.

BH63

It only proves (if that were necassery) that it can be done with less cost to the public.

I was at a pharmacy a week ago to get my wife's pills, listened to a lady with asthma who had just had an attack and was there to get medications.
Her previous stuff was $40, the new stuff was $1000 (Yes I did count the zeros) after some kind of change in suppliers. She was forlorn...

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:
Buy it in Asia - pays for the vacation.

Mike

Or, do the bus tour to Canada. Shits like Shkreli make it obvious there is a real problem that needs addressing. The assumption is that people have plans to bay the exorbitant costs, time insurance companies, who have the power, drew the line. Best drug in the world is no good if you can't afford it. Canadians live in fear, that while vacationing in the US, they fall victim to your health care system. Unexpectedly having a baby can bankrupt you and the hospitals have no pity.

Grizz

My neighbor works for Eli Lilley. We've talked about this subject before. He tells me that on the average probably less than 2% of the drugs that they start research on make it to market and that a new drug is in development for between 5-10 years before it gets approval from the FDA for release.

The R&D for any new drug on the market is in the 10s of Millions of dollars before a single dose is sold. Drug patents in the US are for 20 years so they have to recoupe all the costs for all the failed drugs and the development costs for each drug during that time.

They're in business to.......wait for it.....make money! And while I agree that it can appear excessive, at least they're saving and/or improving lives. You might argue that but how many people listen when their doc tells them to lose 30lbs, quit smoking, start exercising, etc.?

Remember, no doc or pharm rep is banging on your front door stuffing pills down your throat. Also, the places making it in India and China didn't assume the time and money spent in development.

There is no doubt the R&D is massive. The author of the original article posted uses ridiculous information to make a very misleading point. In fact, I would call it total bull s*%t.

The problem remains that often the EXACT same drug can be bought in another country for a small fraction of what we pay in the US. Why?

Look at my example above. OTC drugs less than $20 per month while a prescription for the EXACT same thing is $2,400 per month. If my wife wasn't a surgeon, I would have no idea.

I just saw an article showing the massive in crease in the price of various drugs over the years. In some cases thousands of percent. Why? The R&D was over for those drugs.

I am the ultimate capitalist. I believe in making a profit. At some point, this has gotten to the point of adversely affecting the economy of the country . It is adversely affecting the economy.

We are to the point that basic procedure would bankrupt most people were it not for health insurance. Things like rotator cuff surgery.

The US spends about double on healthcare compare to what the rest of the developed world does as a percentage of GDP.

Please see below. This video from Yale is based upon info from the JAMA. It basically concludes that fully HALF of the increased costs that we have is due to nothing more than PRICE.

https://www.facebook.com/MedPa...s/10155969749793395/

Ok, check the price on: a 40g tube of 5% Flourouracil Skin cancer cream.

OR 60g tube of Desonide (.05% valseline based ointment)
Post the results here.

George

Another problem that I have had is constant changes in formulation. Work hard to find a drug that works and without allergic reactions or other problems .But the next bottle does cause problems ! Drugs and supplements for me have been a crazy thing ..All games with our health !

We deal with drug cost problems all day at work. Most of our providers try to prescribe a med that is not expensive. In some cases that is not an option. Some pharmacies are better than others. Sometimes it is the insurance coverage. One plan will pay for one thing and not another. Sometimes 'new' meds have less side-effects but are more expensive so insurance won't pay for them. Sometiems, 'old' meds are more expensive than 'new' meds. The problem is too complex to point blame at just one group.

Even with insurance goodrx.com can help reduce prescription costs. We typically e-scribe of fax prescriptions to pharmacies. Some patients want paper orders so they can search for the cheapest place online.

Tom

On a related subject;I need to go in for eye surgery. I have no insurance because I can't afford to pay the premiums. I am not Juan + Maria. I am blonde,blue eyed (for now) but I am now a minority for coverage that I have been paying for all of my working life,but I will have to wait another 3 years before I can access Medicare. I can not wait,its this or going blind in my shooting eye.So,I shall have to pay through the nose because I follow the rules while the leeches seep through the cracks.

Well, it could be worse. Soliris is probably the most expensive drug in the US, currently running about $480,000/year.

quote:

So,I shall have to pay through the nose because I follow the rules while the leeches seep through the cracks.

I'm really sorry for your problem, but you made the conscious choice to not buy insurance, just like I have for years, thinking that "it won't happen to me", but it did. Time to pay the piper. Hopefully you will have a good result.

Thanks Charlie.I think.When I am unavoidably blonde haired,blue eyed + did I mention white?;that there seems to be a system in place now that puts me on the back burner.You mention it being my choice;bull shit! If I could afford the premiums I would.I don't have the money.Its that simple.I could tell you tales of customers filing chapter 7 + 11,etc.but it only means one thing;I did'nt get paid.So please don't give me a sermon on my inactivity.Thanks BTW for your exiting comment,Randy