|
I received this from a friend
of mine today, and thought you might be
interested in it as well.
Be sure to catch the item about Costco's pricing.......
Subject: Generic Drugs
On Monday night (July 22), 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! Mr. Wilson did a thorough research, and checked out all
the major drugstore chains, discount chains, independent pharmacies, and
even checked on some Canadian pharmacies.
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 $100.00 for 100 pills. The
pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would
only cost $80.00, making you think you are "saving" $20.00.
What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may
have only cost him $10.00! 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. They gave the link to Costco, which I
will include here, so that you can go and check prices for yourself.
Costco Online pharmacy: www.Costco.com
Costco Online: 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.
|
