Found this rather interesting post in another duscussion, thought I'd sling a copy over here.
From: Buford Terrell
Subject: Fwd: Fw: FW: WHAT DRUGS REALLY COST
To: [email protected]
Forwarded from-
Beki Lowry
Mary Kay Travel, LLC
Financial Administrator
(972) 687-5261
(972) 687-1614 FAX
"All you send into the lives of others comes back into your own"
Mary Kay Ash
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 |
|---|
| 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 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 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.
Everybody's lost just waiting to be found. Everyone's a thought just waiting to fade.
-- Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins
_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
American drug war P.O.W.
10/80 - 10/82
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
Anonymity Anonymous