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#1
09-20-2006, 08:45 PM
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Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredients?
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% Claritin: 1 0 mg Consumer Price (100 t ablets): $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 Cost of general active ingredien t s: $0.14 Percent markup: 134,493% < BR> 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 tab le ts): $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% 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) 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: [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected])
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"What you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. “The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication.” Harmony happens whenever different parts get to form a whole by means of congruity, concord, symetry, consistency, conformity, correspondence, agreement, accord, unity, consonance……. 
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#2
09-20-2006, 09:21 PM
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Big Pharma is the richest industry in the world. Does this info surprise you? Not me.
I'm sure we'll have those that will rationalize and support them for what they charge, citing research money, time invested, etc. Don't believe the hype, though.
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#3
09-20-2006, 11:11 PM
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I kinda figured as much although I had no figures. Surprise me? Na. Nothing surprises me anymore.
Quote:
__________________
"What you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. “The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication.” Harmony happens whenever different parts get to form a whole by means of congruity, concord, symetry, consistency, conformity, correspondence, agreement, accord, unity, consonance…….
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#4
09-20-2006, 11:26 PM
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The government gives large research grants to these companies, and then when they develop the drugs they are allowed to keep ownership of the pantents. If our tax money is going to pay for the research, then the patents should go into the public domain (i.e socialized medicine). Otherwise, let the drug companies pay for their own research and let us keep our tax money. A friend of mine always jokes that the United States is not a Capitalist country. He says we have a mixed system: Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the poor. This is a fine example of how that mixed system functions.
__________________
 my experience on X5world when I spend too much time posting in political threads in the lounge... 
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#5
09-21-2006, 12:03 AM
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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.
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#6
09-21-2006, 08:15 AM
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#7
09-21-2006, 09:05 PM
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Quote:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortu...uticals/1.html http://www.citizen.org/documents/Pharma_Report.pdf
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#8
09-21-2006, 09:28 PM
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So open your own drug company and let the profits flow......
Seriously--you only have to look at Vioxx to see how things can go bad in a hurry. Who do you think pays for the $250 million dollar lawsuit judgement (for just one of the thousands of pending cases)? You and I do. Yes, drug companies could do things better and cheaper (and maybe safer) but who wants to wait 25 years for a new drug to come to market. This is just the tip of the iceberg on the state of health care today--just don't suggest fixing it by socialized medicine. I know tons of people in health care today that would quit tomorrow if that happened.
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'08 335xi - Black/Black - 6-speed manual '07 Mustang GT/CS - Red/Black - Nuthin' Beats a V8 '04 X5 4.4i Silver Ext. / Gray Int. / Loaded (Gone but not forgotten) '05 Mercury Montego (Wife's Car) '03 H-D V-Rod -- Custom Paint, Wheels, Seat, Exhaust, blah, blah, blah '07 BMW R1200S Red/Silver -- Light 'n Fast
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#9
09-21-2006, 09:46 PM
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Just so happens Merck has some of the deepest pockets in the wardrobe.
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