Drug Costs

I know that this is one of John's favorite free-trading studies.
Question: if Walgreens is marking-up by 10000+ percent, then how can I
benefit? How do I use the same distribution channel? Hmmm, maybe I
should take an interest in drug importing...

********************
Why buy Costco ? Because they

consistently charged little over their cost for the generic
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.
>>
>>1) BRAND NAME OF DRUG
>>
>>2) CONSUMER PRICE 100 TABS
>>
>>3) COST OF GENERAL ACTIVE INGREDIENTS
>>
>>4) PERCENT MARKUP
>>
>>1)Celebrex 100 mg - 2)$130.27 - 3) $0.60 - 4)
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 gotten 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.
>>
>>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.








-----------------
Forwarded Message:
Subj:The real deal on Rx"s
Date:1/21/2004 8:33:59 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:Mawsunrise@aol.com
To:Mawsunrise@aol.com


In a message dated 01/01/2004 1:06:15 PM Pacific Standard Time,
DLLaw124 writes:






I have not researched this myself, I am just passing it

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