All Hail Walmart Again!

Re: [spiers] All Hail Walmart Again!

Until this is made illegal, as you say, it is good news for us all, as
it will pull back the curtain on the price structure in the drug
industry and hopefuly put pressure on regulators in consumers favor.

We know that WalMart is making a profit at 4 bucks a bottle, which
should raise some eyebrows about Rite-Aid's margins.

I wonder if only the generic manufacturers and drugstores will be hurt
by WalMart, as the Gucci-brand drugs will not be sold by them.

Let me confirm your point about the US paying more with a couple of
anecdotes. I am in Taiwan right now, and misplaced my drugs while
shuttling between hotels. So yesterday, I jumped off my scooter and
walked into a drugstore, the pharmacist asked if I had a national
insurance card. Of course no, so he thought a second and eyed my
foreign garb and offered me a supply of generic pills (Smith Kline
brand) at no doubt a super inflated price, $9 a month. I pay $10 copay
with insurance, back in Seattle. Forgot to ask what I would pay with
Taiwan insurance.

Last year, I wanted some "backup" antibiotics while in Hanoi. I
happened to ask a local (I do not speak Vietnamese) to help me buy some
generic Cipro. The lady in the dusty street stall therefore sold them
to me at the local price, which was 1:100 of what I had paid in the
States a few months, earlier.

Now the Vietnamese drug factory workers may be earning 10% of the US
drug factory works, but I doubt their per-pill cost is only 10% of US
per-pill cost. But let's say it is. That means we are paying 10 times
more, with factory costs normalized, than that country. Boggles the
mind that we continue to pay so much in the US for such commodities.
What if flour were $600 a pound? Would we pay it?


On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 12:04, John Spiers wrote:
> Folks,
>
> WalMart plans to test market an offer of a months supply of 261
> different drugs for $4.
>

Please reply to psnyder@alumni.caltech.edu

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