3,361,596 members
12,339,752 petition signatures
$17,571,785,510 diverted from Big Pharma
Obscene Drug Mark Ups
Make sure to keep reading to the bottom where it discusses Costco, Sam’s Club, etc. The women who wrote this email and signed below are Federal Budget Analysts in Washington, DC
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 State 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 100 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60 Percen t markup: 1,712%
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 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): $10237 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 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 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 …
3000 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 prescr iption 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, Sam’s Club and other discount volume stores consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs.
I went to the discount store’s 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, Comparing, 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 another discount store for $28.08. I would like to mention, that although these are 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 passing it into your own email, and send it to everyone you know with an email address.
Sharon L. Davis, Budget Analyst, US Department of Commerce Room 6839 Office Ph: 202-482-4458; Office Fax: 202-482-5480 Email Address: sdavis@docgov
Mary Palmer, Budget Analyst, Bureau of Economic Analysis Office of Budget & Finance; Voice: (202) 606-9295
http://www.health-report.co.uk/obscene_drug_mark_ups.htm
just leave me information on understanding the math of a markup that is 3000 percent
Oh and thank you for your exposure about this.
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I want to know how the drug companies et al get away with such blatant over charging. You didn’t give the mark up for any of the drugs made for people with HIV/AIDS. The mark-up for these must be in the millions of percent. Do you have any idea how this can be stopped? It’s truly a crime. A huge waste of money for all of us since the Feds and the states are paying for a huge percentage of the prescriptions for people who use these drugs.
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A Robinson Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Simple. They toss in the cost of “development” and “testing” into the basic price. They have a formula, I’m sure.
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John Butler Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Do you have any idea how this can be stopped?
Yes! Join the President in pushing for a STRONG public insurance option in the upcoming debates and voting on health reform. Public Insurance could negotiate pill pricing like it’s done all over the world except here.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/health-care-action-center/
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Carolyn Hook Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Yes, drug cost are totally out of control. Yet it is a fact that we are an “over-drugged” nation! Most of the chronic ailments are known to be “preventable”! But we are not educated in this venue. As long as they can keep us in the sick category and make their money, why would they. I am in my 60’s and take NO prescription drugs. I have friends in their 80’s and they don’t either! And I know why! The choices we make about what we put in our mouths determine to a large extent whether or not our body is healthy or diseased. I am not about to support ANY public “health” (really “disease”) insurance option!
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Recently I was told I needed to take a drug that would cost me $900 for a 1-month supply.(Inhalable Tobramycin, an antibiotic to be put in a nebulizer) I was told that the drug cost $4000, but that my insurance company would pay the balance. I mentioned this to my doctor, and he looked in his Dr. Drug book and laughed. He said the actual medicine would cost less than $200, (I can’t remember the actual price, but it can be found in that book.)for a lot more than I needed. There is a problem here, and supporting this greed is coming out of the consumer’s hide! Thanks for any efforts anyone makes to rein in this system! No wonder we are getting pharmacies on every corner…….
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The huge mark-ups, according to the pharma companies, is so they can fund their continued research in finding more drugs to “cure” people of all the terrible diseases we have now. I’m a homeopath,I treat people for their illness based on their symptoms, rather than their diagnosis, and there is a HUGE difference from homeopathic remedy prices to allopathic drugs. Most remedies (there are a few exceptions) are very reasonably priced at $10 to $30 for a month’s supply.
The AMA and the pharmaceutical companies got together a long time ago to manage things to their profit.
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Common logic would have you believe that the health insurance companies would resist pharmaceutical company gouging along with high doctor charges and expensive medical techniques. But, the health insurance companies were quick to learn the lessons of the nuclear power industry of the 1970s. Why build a $1 billion nuclear powerplant (where watchdogs will allow you a 15% return on investment), when you could have mistakes and cost overruns resulting in a $5 billion nuclear powerplant (15% ROI is still allowed). This way you can grow the size of your business 500% without getting any new customers! Health insurance companies do the same thing; they LOVE IT when their costs go up! They can grow their business without bothering with the competitive practice of getting new customers.
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Where is our government in protecting its citizens from this outrageous greed and avarice ?
It is one of the fundamental duties of government to protect its citizens…yet our government is in bed with these pathological thieves. Case in point, Donald Rumsfield left the Reagan administration to go to work for Searle in which he used his contacts in the federal government to ramrod the approval of aspartame through the FDA. Aspartame is not harmless, it is an excitotoxin among other things. A Coca-Cola employee once told me that if Aspartame was rejected as a sweetener because of its side effects, which they knew of, then they had another different sweetener on standby.
We need to have a government of the people, not international corporations… but it is apparently far too late for that considering the immense power of these “real” criminals.
What we desparately need is “honest” and ethical people who consistently put moral principle above profit.
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If the above was not outrageous enough, add to it the statistic that the equivalent of 2 jumbo jets of people DIE every 3 days in the USA from the iatrogenic (treatment-caused) effects of allopathic medicine, the large majority due to drug side effects, mistakes in usage or prescribing, or drug interactions. This system is so broken it isn’t worth fixing! You are more likely to survive longer and healthier–not to forget wealthier–if you avoid it entirely. I’ve moved on to the best Ayurvedic system available for enhancing health and haven’t looked back.
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The drug companies will, of course, claim that they are recouping the cost to research and develop their product.
What they don’t tell you is that much of this costly research is done with federal grant money at universities, NOT by drug companies.
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FDA gets kickbacks from Pharma so we need to overhaul the FDA and maybe some Congressman who is involved with this corruption. Have a complete data on the cost, the cost of the researches, advertisements and any other cost connected. Pharmas has been controlling our politicians for too long and it’s become a way of life. Let’s not just talk or complain but get more transparency and openess. Have the head of FDA on the hotseat in Congress!
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The pharma companies are one of the ugliest and unethical businesses that exist. Also, statins (Lipitor) inhibit the body’s production of CoQ10, which brings energy to the muscular system, which includes the HEART, so, not only is the statin not safe because it damages the liver, the heart muscle is weakened, more each day until the person becomes weak. I know people on statins and they are in this position. Also, the doctors don’t tell their patients this. As for Aspartame, not only is it an excitotoxin, it is a neurotoxin!!! It destroys the myelin sheath that covers the nervous system, doing the same thing as Multiple Sclerosis, with the same symptoms. As Aspartame metabolizes, it forms formaldehyde and i think formic acid (fire ants) which causes the action of breakdown. Aspartame contains wood alcohol(methanol) which is toxic to the body!!!
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Stop the insanity! Walk away while your still able. Go to the Ayurvedic system ,or some other wholeistic system. I recomend Dr. Robert O. Youngs book “The pH Miracle for Weight Loss” , it’s for a lot more than weight loss. Re-claim your body & re-discover your soul & mind (your prosperity also).
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[...] the actual price of a popular drug and how much the generic version of its active ingredients costs. Examine these figures: In order to understand how we can spend 2.6 trillion this year on healthcare, but not reduce the [...]