Drugs and facts about mark up
Verified -snopes.com: Generic DrugsLet'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%
Continues on comment
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%
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%
Comments (23)
In the US alone, it was reported that if our health system is not going to improved it is enough to bankrupt the economy in 20 years. That is of course including the cost on doctor's and hospital when we need them.
Thank God, I am not on prescription drugs yet, but who knows as we grow old, how it is going to be.
Hope we can maintain our health to stay away from costly maintenance of our bodies.
Stay healthy is all I can say Ash.
I m grateful my MS isn t progressing, and I only have to use a cane. I find better diet is the best help. I see so many people with Ms taking this pill, that pill, and at the end of the day, I don t see any improvement in any of them,
Every time some one comes out with new ideas for curing or helping People with MS, they have to be studied, criticised till those ideas are never heard of again,
Now most of my friends are in the hospital every now and then and they are all complaining about the cost of their pocket share on Blue Cross under the Obama care. Sad really.
I am happy for you with your choice and determination to stay on good diet. I know it is helping you a lot.
It cost 1 billion dollars to get the FDA to approve any new drug for market
That's why
Patents are only good for 21 years, and drug patents must allow licensing for generics, i believe in half that time....So
They must make 50 billion or more, on each billion they spend, so they wont go broke
When drug companies (pharmasutical companies) revenues are biggar than some states, and provinces, and countries something is definitely wrong,
When I sell for example one original package of a pharmaceutical to the wholesale for 14,92 €, the wholesale is bound to to sell it to the pharmacy for about 21 €, and the pharmacy is bound to to sell it to the end-consumer for about 30 €.
In general all prescribed drugs (if it is not a private prescription) will be paid by your health insurance, and you have to pay in the pharmacy only 5 euros per prescribed pharmaceutical.
When you buy it as a producer, the price for single ingredients for pharmaceuticals, especially things like acetyl acid or paracetamol, are ridiculous low.
Here in Germany it is by the way like that that you can apply for so called standard licences when a patent is expired. For the mentioned pain killer ingredients you only have to pay a few hundred euros for a standard licence, and you can produce them. But it doesn´t make sense, because there are big companies who sell such pharmaceuticals for such little prices (because they produce and sell tons of it) ... no one could underprice them.
Vioxx is one of them drugs that were a cash cow, and had been reported killing over 80,000 people before it was shut down. Not one executive went to prison
I the US I know that some medicines are cheaper depending where you get them. Costco , Kaiser and Walmart seems cheaper. A friend of mine who has to pay for all her prescriptions said there are pharmacies where they sell higher.
Obviously if the cost to the to the drug is goes up then it's passed on to the consumer.