# Prescription Drug Prices



## John Harrelson (Aug 26, 2006)

Cindy, if you feel that this is not appropriate for the forum, please feel free to do your admin thing.  

Got this in the the mail today and thought I would pass it along to everyone.

The RV life may be a great way to live, but it's not neccessarily a cheap way to live..

I'm one of the lucky people. I have the Veteran's hospital/medical coverage, but many of you do not... Maybe this will help with your medicine bills..

John
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Date : Fri, Aug 25, 2006 08:32 AM 

Hello All,

I looked this up on Snopes.com and they confirm *this one is true.* While they can&rsquo;t confirm all the prices, they did confirm the basic story (IE: the mark-ups, the research, and that *Costco generally has the lowest prescription prices*).

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 the past, 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%

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 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, 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) I went there this past Thursday and asked them. 

Sharon L. Davis
Budget Analyst
U.S. Department of Commerce Room 6839
Office Ph: 202-482-4458 Office Fax: 202-482-5480 E-mail Address: sdavis@doc.gov 
************************************************



John Harrelson 
Carson City,Nevada
jharrelson@juno.com


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## DL Rupper (Aug 26, 2006)

RE: Prescription Drug Prices

Hey John, thanks for the info.
for those of you that take over-the-counter Claratin (Loratadine), Sam's Club sells their Members Mark brand, Loratadine 10mg, for approx $17.00/300 tablets (2 bottles).  Note:  That is not Claritin/Loratadine D.


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## Kirk (Aug 26, 2006)

John

Hey John, aren't you working the fire camps this summer?


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## rlmurraysr59 (Aug 26, 2006)

Re: Prescription Drug Prices

Thanks for the investigation, John.  I was in a discussion the other day with some people about taxes.  They claimed that our taxes had gone down.  Whoa?  Sales tax in North Carolina is 7.5%.  But to make the math simple I used 7%.  I use to be able to buy a gallon of milk for $3.00 with tax added at .21 cents.  Now that same gallon of milk cost me $4.00 with the tax being .28 cents.  Seem insignificant.  Well maybe people should keep all of their receipts for the year and add up how much tax they pay as compared to a few years ago.  I just used one simple example.  Do you know of anything that has gone down in price over the last 6 years.  I don't.  Funny thing is all the textile jobs in North Carolina that paid $14.00 to $18.00 an hour were sent over seas for cheap labor but the price of my underwear still cost the same.  

C. Nash needs gas money to go see the shuttle launch.  But Western Union doesn't send money anymore.

Just trying to be helpful.

Good luck. :laugh:


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