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BarbaraD
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Found THIS INTERESTING......
« on: May 6th, 2005, 1:54pm » |
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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. A s 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.
Celebrex 1 00 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%
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
Cons umer 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 o utrageous, 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.&n bsp; 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, I went there this past Thursday and asked them.) 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.
Sharon L. Davis
Budget Analyst
U.S. Department of Commerce
Room 6839
Office Ph: 202-482-4458
Office Fax: 202-482-5480
Email Address: sdavis@doc
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Linda_Howell
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #1 on: May 6th, 2005, 2:55pm » |
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hmmmm
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Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? |
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O.K. Even though I hate the drug Co.'s for their greed, let me play devils advocate here for just one second.
a question? Does this chart which I think is pretty accurate, include in the cost...all the years of research costs? or simply the bare bones of ingredients?
Linda
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BobG
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #2 on: May 6th, 2005, 3:22pm » |
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Dang! The markup on drugs is almost as high as the markup on jewelery and furniture.
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Linda_Howell
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #3 on: May 6th, 2005, 3:36pm » |
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Don't know about furniture, but I used to sell diamond and gold jewelry. Bought everything from the big brokers in Los Angeles. Their mark-up on diamonds and gold 15 yrs. ago was 200% Even DeBeers isn't as greedy as the Pharmas. it would seem.
Linda
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Lizzie2
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #4 on: May 6th, 2005, 3:49pm » |
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Just talked about this in clinical on Tuesday night. The pharmaceutical companies also choose doctors to run their clinical trials.
What people don't know is the amount of money the pharma companies pay out to run the clinical trials. In many cases, the doc gets paid a hefty price for each person they enroll in the clinical trial.
So, although it's just one facet, that's another reason that drug companies charge more, too. They have to reimburse for the price of running clinical trials and doing research.
But, I'm in no way defending the drug companies...just some info we talked about the other night which did make some sense!
Lizzie 
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Linda_Howell
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #5 on: May 6th, 2005, 3:57pm » |
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Quote:Just talked about this in clinical on Tuesday night. The pharmaceutical companies also choose doctors to run their clinical trials.
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That's cool. I would not want Bubba who just relined the brakes and overhauled my transmission to do this.
Quote:In many cases, the doc gets paid a hefty price for each person they enroll in the clinical trial.
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THERE lies the problem as I see it.
Linda
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TomM
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #6 on: May 6th, 2005, 4:19pm » |
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on May 6th, 2005, 2:55pm, Linda_Howell wrote:| a question? Does this chart which I think is pretty accurate, include in the cost...all the years of research costs? or simply the bare bones of ingredients? |
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Thank you for this point of view.
on May 6th, 2005, 3:49pm, Lizzie2 wrote:| But, I'm in no way defending the drug companies...Lizzie |
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What is wrong with defending drug companies? You just did.
Me, I'm on the extreme side of this issue. Our clients pay big $$$ to keep thier patents enforced so they can recoupt thier investment. And yes, I do see that drug companies make large $$$ so I'm not completely blind to this.
I'm just tired of the band wagon jumping that goes on here.
TomM
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| « Last Edit: May 6th, 2005, 4:19pm by TomM » |
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bigAl
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #7 on: May 6th, 2005, 4:35pm » |
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Basic ingredients
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shipping
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manufactoring
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packaging
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distributing
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advertising
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research and development
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employee salaries / health care / benefits
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dividends to stock holders
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political lobbying and payoffs
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congressional luncheons and trips
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campaign contributions
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under the table payoffs that we never hear about
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payoffs to FDA officials and other government leaches
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sales reps to convince doctors that you need their stuff
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payoffs to the doctors and free samples to give out
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high security people, shipping and storage (esp. narcotics)
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insurance
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legal fees and law suit payouts
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losses due to legitimate theft
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ALL this adds up to just the wholesale price of the product. Next the retailer has to mark up the cost to pay the pharmasist and other costs of distribution. Crimoney whizers, we should be happy when it's only $1.00 a pill and not $100.00 each!
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BobG
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #8 on: May 6th, 2005, 4:50pm » |
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LMAO 
That would be the $5 million yearly bonus to the CEO for running the company. For which he/she is paid $5 million a year anyway. Nice work, if you can get it.
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Pinkfloyd
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #9 on: May 6th, 2005, 5:30pm » |
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on May 6th, 2005, 4:50pm, BobG wrote:
That would be the $5 million yearly bonus to the CEO for running the company. For which he/she is paid $5 million a year anyway. Nice work, if you can get it. |
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About half of what a 20 year old kid that can't spell his name makes for shooting a basketball....80 nights a year.
About half of what Britney Spears makes in a year, workin weekends.
I suppose you could have Britney run Glaxo, The CEO starting at guard for the Lakers and the BB player singing (oh wait, isn't that American Idol?) and save a few bucks but that would just screw up the earth's axis.
Bobw
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BobG
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #10 on: May 6th, 2005, 5:50pm » |
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Quote:About half of what a 20 year old kid that can't spell his name makes for shooting a basketball spends on steroids to play baseball....80 nights a year.
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Charlie
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #11 on: May 6th, 2005, 7:05pm » |
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No. It doesn't cover the cost of R&D but the drug companies spend a tiny tiny fraction of what they say on this. More research is done in Europe than here and much cheaper than stated...taxes you know. Also, there is very little new coming from them. A lot of it consists of small changes under new names. Some of it to get around expired patents.
I'm sorry but anyone dumb enough to buy anything on pricing put forth by drug company spokesmen deserves to pay and pay and pay. They have never made so many billions skinning senior citizens as now. They spend a lot researching ways to stop the same people from getting drugs from Canada. By letting them get away with it, it's clear that the current crowd in Washington has no social conscience.
Charlie
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Ueli
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #12 on: May 6th, 2005, 10:49pm » |
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Sheet steel is about $500 per ton. Considering the price of a new car, the markup for the automobile industry is pretty high too.
As bigAl said, to the few cents for the active ingredient there is a lot of other costs to add. But I also agree that the price for most meds could be cut in half, without the pharma companies going bankrupt. One way to cut cost would be to lower the CEO's bonus to $5 million, as mentioned by BobG. Daniel Vasella, Chairman and CEO of Novartis makes currently 20 million a year (and he deserves every cent of it, in his own opinion)
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LadyLuv
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #13 on: May 7th, 2005, 3:05am » |
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I worked part-time for a local Osco Drug Store for 14 years and they have the best discount I've ever seen for employees;13% over dealers cost, and that includes prescriptions.
There's a code on the price tag or shelf tag of each item in the store. The mark up is so great on 75% of the items, including prescriptions, that it's hard for me to shop there now knowing the price of each item, unless it's on sale.
Before I left the store, I paid for roughly 80% of all my prescription medication without going thru my insurance co, because it was cheaper than my co-pay; with the exception of Trex.
PS: I'm glad some one is up.. I'm having very bad shadows and I'm afraid to lay down... that's normally when I get it, while I'm asleep..
Peace & Blessing
LL
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BobG
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #14 on: May 7th, 2005, 3:22am » |
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Quote:I'm glad some one is up.. I'm having very bad shadows and I'm afraid to lay down... that's normally when I get it, while I'm asleep..
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How's the shadow? Gone away yet?
There is usually someone, at least one, or two here all night. I just got to work so I'll be logged in for 7 more hours.
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marty
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #15 on: May 7th, 2005, 6:11am » |
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BarbaraD !!! 
Thanks. I just checked Costco and compared to what I am paying now (at Whalgreen's) and guess what.. If I drive to Austin and buy my prescription drugs at Costco WITHOUT using my insurance I will pay about the same (including gas) as I would at Whalgreen's USING my insurance..
Guess where I am going?
Marty
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Kirk
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Re: Found THIS INTERESTING......
« Reply #16 on: May 7th, 2005, 8:23pm » |
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[quote
I just got to work so I'll be logged in for 7 more hours. [/quote]
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