The nonsense of precription medicine costs

[S-W4EVER]

The United States is one of only a handful of countries that DOES NOT have price caps on prescription medicines. Those multi-billion dollar profits the drug companies make every year come primarily from the U.S.
This is never going to change as long as big pharma owns the U.S. Congress.

Exactly. If our "owners" cared about us we'd form a co-op to develop prescription drugs and sell them to citizens at cost. But that makes too much sense...

 

[Narragansett]

Being a Vet;
My 90 day supply of Elequist at two a day, through the VA is only
$33.

It should cost nothing

 

[BigBoy99]

Since last summer we have been getting notices from my medical insurance company about how they were going to change pharmacy providers on the first of Jan. The notices spoke of the glowing savings we would experience with the new company.

I went last week and used to new pharmacy company to refill a prescription for one of the drugs I take. With the old pharmacy, my copay was $3. With the new company the copay is now $34! Some savings. I'm sure the insurance company executives got a very big bonus for switching companies!

 

[UncleEd]

The U.S. government has provided billions
in subsidies to American Big Pharma companies.

Perhaps the subsidy per drug should be factored
into what the pricing will be. And actual R&D costs
need to be investigated versus those subsidies.

 

[Iggy]

You all need to take a look at Mark Cubin's Costplus pharmacy.
They give you a huge cut in drugs. They claim " cost plus $5.00"'
I am taking prescription that would cost just over $6,000.00 a month, I am getting it for $105.00.
They are adding new ones every month. You can go to their website and check the list of what they offer and compare regular retail prices and their prices.
It's eye opening for sure.

 

[Heinz]

The last information I had relative to drug companies setting prices stated the price primarily was based on the benefit received by the patient. If the drug is a life maintaining drug, and there is a single source, it is going to be very expensive, without out regard to manufacturing cost or research and development cost. They maximize profit where they can, when they can. The FDA also leads them on a merry chase for drug approval.

The insurance companies generally operate on a cost plus basis, the more they have to pay out the more they can charge, so other than staying competitive with other insurers, cost is not a major factor.

When my late wife was fighting her last battle with brain cancer, she received some experimental immunotoxic chemotherapy. The tone hour treatments were $65,000 a pop. I do not believe that was a cost basis price. I smile when I pay my Blue Cross bill because they are never going to catch up with me.

 

[Bald1]

It's a known fact that grocery stores with pharmacies will in most cases be cheaper than a drug store or pharmacy. This would include Target and Walmart. Why this is I don't know. But Doctors, insurance companies and Pharmacist themselves have told me this

 

[bullmack]

Wife and I are both on Medicare. The magic word when paying is "GoodRX". There are usually coupons for it laying around in every pharmacy but in my experience they don't even need a coupon. Just ask what's the cost with GoodRX. I high end NSAID I use is $138 but $15 with GoodRX. (they are a publicly traded company)

 

[yaktamer]

You can pull up GoodRX coupons on your phone at their website. I have great insurance so they don't save me anything on my prescriptions, but I save a lot on prescription meds for my dogs. The key to GoodRX is to check which pharmacy has the best price with the coupon on the day you are ordering, and to make sure that you are entering the proper size and number of pills. Again, all on the Good RX website.

 

[DWalt]

Wife and I are both on Medicare. The magic word when paying is "GoodRX". There are usually coupons for it laying around in every pharmacy but in my experience they don't even need a coupon. Just ask what's the cost with GoodRX. I high end NSAID I use is $138 but $15 with GoodRX. (they are a publicly traded company)

We did something like that for my now-deceased M-I-L. We got her into some discount price drug plan at Wal Mart that was fairly good, at least for the meds she took. It may have been GoodRx, but I don't remember. She had an AARP Medicare supplement plan, but it had fairly meager drug coverage.

 

[Yaworski]

And the drug company only has 7 years to recoup those costs before the patent runs out and the drug goes generic.

Drug patents are good for 20 years after the drug's invention. In most cases, this time frame is halved to 10 years after testing finally brings the drug to the marketplace. Patents are typically awarded within a few years after the patent application submission.

. . . . .

 

[Dave_n]

I think one of the biggest dangers of new drugs is that the book listing all the possible side effects may land on your head.

The PDR (Physicians Desk Reference) is effectively a compilation of all of he Package Inserts mandated by law(s). Every "sniffle to death" in the pre- and clinical trials have to be listed in the insert which is why the volume is "voluminous".

What is not often realized is that the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (in which CVS is a major player) are the major groups that interact between the Drug Company and the pharmacy. They claim to save money but most savings!! end up in their shareholders pockets.

What is not realized is the cost of drug discovery to approval. Effectively 1/5 is discovery, 1/5 is preclinical and 2/5 is clinical trials. The remainder is "advertizing". Just to give an idea, the last antibiotic from a modified natural source, was pulled from the market as it sold only $98 Million in the first two years, and cost over $500 Million to reach commercialization. I have many other "examples" but too little time.

The approx figures from discovery to drug reach around $1.2+ billion. The figures from Boston University are the inflated ones courtesy of the sales departments in drug manufacturers. I spent over 50 years in drug discovery in academia, industry and NIH, with significant input into two antibiotics and one anti-tumor agent so have some insight into where costs come from. Dave_n

 

[ladder13]

The PDR (Physicians Desk Reference) is effectively a compilation of all of he Package Inserts mandated by law(s). Every "sniffle to death" in the pre- and clinical trials have to be listed in the insert which is why the volume is "voluminous".

What is not often realized is that the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (in which CVS is a major player) are the major groups that interact between the Drug Company and the pharmacy. They claim to save money but most savings!! end up in their shareholders pockets.

What is not realized is the cost of drug discovery to approval. Effectively 1/5 is discovery, 1/5 is preclinical and 2/5 is clinical trials. The remainder is "advertizing". Just to give an idea, the last antibiotic from a modified natural source, was pulled from the market as it sold only $98 Million in the first two years, and cost over $500 Million to reach commercialization. I have many other "examples" but too little time.

The approx figures from discovery to drug reach around $1.2+ billion. The figures from Boston University are the inflated ones courtesy of the sales departments in drug manufacturers. I spent over 50 years in drug discovery in academia, industry and NIH, with significant input into two antibiotics and one anti-tumor agent so have some insight into where costs come from. Dave_n

Thanks for your insight.

 

[pawngal]

I don't have a Medicare part D drug plan cuz I only take 2 cheap Rx and those are only as needed. My total prescription costs last year were under $100. I had an interesting one several years ago, an expensive eye drop Rx, I paid around $25. My receipt showed what would have been billed to an insurance company, $160. When my husband was fighting cancer he had a decent drug plan. New Rx, expensive, around $350, insurance would only cover about half of that. Private pay cost, $45.

 

[DWalt]

Recent personal experience. Last year I had a heart stent implanted. Standard practice is for the recipient to take an anticoagulant (anti-clotting) drug for six months to a year. I got a prescription from the cardiologist for Brilanta, which is a relatively recent anticoagulant drug with no generic form available. I went to the CVS, and found that my co-pay would be about $90 per month for Brilanta. I did not buy as I had a few Brilanta pills from the hospital. I then returned home and started doing internet research. I read through everything I could find, and discovered numerous clinical studies showed that the performance of Plavix (generic form is clopidogrel) was essentially identical in patient outcomes to Brilanta. And to me, the cost of clopidogrel is zero - no copayment. I got back to my cardiologist and he agreed that there was no particular effectiveness difference between Brilanta and clopidogrel, and he changed the prescription to clopidogrel. A year later and I am still alive, no complications at all. My question is that if he knew there was little difference in effectiveness between the two drugs, which he obviously did, why did he write my first prescription for the high-priced drug? I did not ask him that.