Originally Posted by AutoXer

I will just toss my comments in here. The costs for the ingredients and manufacturing are miniscule as compared to what goes on in the big pharmaceutical companies. I use to do research for a medical device company and the hoops we have to jump through to get a product past the FDA were many and large. Then there are all the failed projects that never gets to market. Then after a drug gets to market, the company has to worry about the potential law suits that might come it's way.

Running a pharmaceutical company is not as easy as it seems. Yes, they make lots of money at times. But at other times, they eat it in the shorts too. A case in point, I am a Merck stock holder and have owned their stock since the early 1990's. Never sold (stupid me), and have seen it go way up and came way back down. All the other pharmaceutical stocks did the same. So unfortunately even at the gross profit margins mentioned, they still are not making money!

I am not defending the prices, but just some observations about the industry.