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6706. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/15/2006 5:31:55 PM
From an Email I just received:
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 State s 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: 10 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71
Percent markup: 30,306%
Keflex: 250 mg
Cons umer 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
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
C onsumer 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: /B 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 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 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. Davis
Budget Analyst
U.S Department of Commerce
Room 6839
Office Ph: 202-482-4458
Office Fax: 202-482-5480
E-mail Address: sdavis@doc.gov
6707. wabbit - 11/15/2006 6:04:56 PM Costco Pharmacy 6708. wonkers2 - 11/15/2006 9:17:09 PM The "ethical" pharmaceutical industry is hardly ethical. They bribe our doctors to prescribe their drugs and they bribe our legislators as well. 6709. wonkers2 - 11/16/2006 11:47:50 PM Tissue Engineering at a Crossroads 6710. prolph - 11/17/2006 8:54:56 AM good news for dry macular degrnration, PRESIVISION works, I have been treated at the Shiley eye center which is a treatmebnt center as well
as a reserch. Shiley keeps track of all of us and advises us when the have a trial that has proven to work. I now have better vision than last check.
My sister also has the problem and has gone back about two years in
sight. She is with an HMO where the doctors were amazed at her better sight, Kind of irritates me beccause if i hadn't told her she would have not known the regimen, One presivision gel morning and night and a
lutein gel capsule ar lunch All to be takne with meals, Be careful though
some are sold together so read labels,
There are people who can be helped who haven't heard about the help that is out there which i think is seriously wrong. oh.,both are over the counter I won't go into health care (aaargh) but I will not go to any hospital that is not a teaching hospital . Sister is now able to get her driving license back and i am able to the crawls at the bottom of a tv screen
,, 6711. alistairconnor - 11/17/2006 12:57:50 PM That's first-rate news Patsy... I hope to read you more often on the Mote! 6712. thoughtful - 11/17/2006 3:43:12 PM That's wonderful news...I'll be sure to pass it along. Husband of a friend of mine has mac degen, but I'm not sure if it's wet or dry...may be wet. 6713. wonkers2 - 11/17/2006 3:51:03 PM I hope it continues to work, Patsy. I can only imagine what it would be like not to be able to read easily. 6714. prolph - 11/17/2006 10:44:54 PM Thougtful-there is a cure now for wet md.
Also your purina diet has chuckling every time i feed the cats,Thanks 6715. arkymalarky - 11/18/2006 1:38:08 AM That's absolutely fantastic, Patsy!! 6716. robertjayb - 12/2/2006 4:21:37 AM New breast cancer detection method...
CHICAGO — An experimental ultrasound technique that measures how easily breast lumps compress and bounce back could enable doctors to determine instantly whether a woman has cancer without doing a biopsy.
In a small study of 80 women, the technique — called "elastography" — distinguished harmless lumps from malignant ones with nearly 100 percent accuracy.
If the results hold up in a larger study, elastography could save thousands of women from the waiting, cost, discomfort and anxiety of a biopsy, in which cells are removed from the breast — sometimes with a needle, sometimes with a scalpel — and examined under a microscope.
6717. thoughtful - 1/9/2007 10:47:42 PM Hallelujah! They're finally starting to catch on!
Now repeat after me: fats not bad...sugar bad.
The Cure for Diabetes
6718. CharlieL - 1/9/2007 11:33:07 PM That's a great article. 6719. arkymalarky - 1/9/2007 11:56:42 PM CHARLIE!!!!! Great to see you! Hope your holidays were good! 6720. CharlieL - 1/10/2007 12:37:09 AM They were good, Arky. The band stayed busy, we had six gigs in December, and I'm able to breathe for a bit before the hectic schedule starts again in March. 6721. wabbit - 1/10/2007 1:12:39 AM Hey CharlieL, how lovely to see you again!
t'ful, when I was very young, I had a ton of cavities (lucky they were baby teeth!), but fortune was smiling on me. The doctors and dentists all impressed on my mother how important it was to keep my sugar intake under control, not so much because of cavities, but because of diabetes. Now maybe they didn't have the studies to back them up, but it sure looks like it was very good advice.
With the health problems I do have, it's nice not to have diabetes to boot. I lost an aunt to diabetes (type-1 though), and the whole family is pretty vigilant as a result. 6722. thoughtful - 1/10/2007 3:31:19 PM Hey CharlieL...nice to see you, stranger. 6723. thoughtful - 1/10/2007 4:38:22 PM wabbit, yes, especially since there is a correlation among all auto-immune related disorders.
6724. thoughtful - 1/30/2007 7:04:15 PM For those of you who are concerned about your cholesterol levels and/or your blood glucose levels, beware.
When visiting mom, she thought she'd do us the favor of buying pepperidge farm cookies. I looked at the label and saw 0 transfats and thought ok...but then i noticed something called 'interesterified' fat. What the heck is that?
No one knows. I mean it is a way of combining fats using enzymes as catalysts to give it the same room temperature solidity as transfats, but no one knows what the heck it does to the body or if it's safe.
I came across one study that suggests that not only is the interesterified fat just as damaging as the transfats on the ldl/hdl ratio, but that it has even worse effects on blood glucose levels.
My take, avoid it all.
Eat real food, avoid processed food, bake your own goodies where you can control the fats that go in and substitute 1/2 of the white flour with wheat flour to add fiber and nutrition.
And when you read labels, don't just look at 0 transfats and think ok...it may not be. Read the ingredients and watch for 'partially hydrogenated' and/or 'interesterified'. Avoid them like the plague. 6725. wonkers2 - 1/31/2007 6:01:54 AM Thanks for the heads up on "interesterified." I saw in today's newspaper that McDonalds is going to stop using transfats. Maybe they're going interesterified.
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