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The information contained here was sent to me by a reliable source who
received it from Dr. Tines.
The Cost of Manufacturing Drugs
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
|
RETAIL |
COST |
MARK-UP% |
| 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 1 mg |
136.79 |
0.024 |
569,958 |
| Zestril 20 mg |
89.89 |
3.20 |
2,809 |
| Zithromax 600 mg |
1,428.19 |
18.78 |
7,892 |
| Zocor 40 mg |
350.27 |
8.63 |
4,059 |
| Zoloft 50 mg |
206.87 |
1.75 |
11,821 |
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 mo re. 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.
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