Re: The data below speaks for itself.9Some things missed.)

[Guest guest]

I am in no way saying that pharmaceutical companies are totally innocent, but

the analyst forgot the Cost of Research and Development. The only costs listed

below are ingredients. They also forgot overhead for the plant, workers,

electricity, etc.

Only about 1% of drugs make it to the market, and the cost of R & D for the

other 99% is built into the cost of the drugs on the market. I know it sucks,

but it is the only way for companies to recover the costs and to continue R & D

to bring new and innovative drugs to the market.

The real criminals, believe it or not, are the generic companies. They do

nothing except wait for patents to expire and copy the formulas. So the

pharmaceutical companies only have a small window to recover the costs, which is

why they are so expensive. The reason generics are so cheap is because they

have NO R & D costs to recover. Now some of the drugs I take are generic, but

you have to realize that NO generic pharmaceutical company EVER developed a

drug. So before you totally criminalize the entire pharmaceutical industry for

the costs of the drugs, look at healthcare if these companies were not producing

life-saving drugs. The cost of not having them is much higher.

I am sorry if this offends some, because there are many things in the

pharmaceutical industry that I do not approve of. But there are also a lot of

good things they do. For instance, Pfizer donates $25 Million dollars of

medication to charity every month.

tigerpaw2c <tigerpaw2c@...> wrote:

Subject: COSTCO! read this whole article...especially the end!

GREED! Only I wish I was in this business!

Maybe you or someone you know could use this information. Please

read to the end.

COSTCO! read this...

Let's hear it for Costco!! (This is just mind-boggling!) Make

sure you read all the way past the list of the drugs.

The woman that signed below is a Budget Analyst out of federal

Washington, DC offices.

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 data below speaks for itself.

Celebrex: 100 mg

Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27

Cost of general active ingredients: $ 0.60

Percent markup: 21,712%

Claritin: 1 0 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%

Norvasc: 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): $102.37

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 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 , 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.

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

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 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.

(this is true)

I went there this past Thursday and asked them. I am asking each of

you to please help me by copying this letter, and passing it into

your own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail

address.

Sharon L.

Budget Analyst

U.S . Department of Commerce Room 6839

Office Ph: 202-482-4458

Office Fax: 202-482-5480

E-mail Address: sdavis@...

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