It seems Americans are increasingly showing up at their neighborhood pharmacies to find out that their medications’ prices have increased exponentially, by as much as 100, 200, 300, 600%…2500%! Believe me, I’m not exaggerating. In an article with a similar title as this blog post, called “Drug Price Gouging,” Steve DeFillippo brings us two examples of sickening drug price spikes. In one instance, a Mr. Gary Loser showed up at the pharmacy only to find that the price of his prescription drug went from $5.50 to $34.50 – an increase of 600%. Mr. DeFillippo then one upped Mr. Loser by recounting his drug price blast-off, when the price of his medication, Nadalol, went from $10 to $252 for a for a 90 day supply – a 2500% increase!
Americans frequently, and usually with good reason, blast big brand-name drug companies, like Eli Lilly, Merck, and Pfizer for charging much higher prices domestically than internationally. In this case we can’t slam big pharma because the medication at issue, Nadolol, is generic and has been around for 40 years. Generic drugs are usually pursued by consumers because their prices are so low. Moreover, generic drugs are usually less expensive in the U.S. than in Canada and many other countries.
So what the heck is up?
The “theory” I’m proposing is more or less just telling you what I’ve heard anecdotally from small U.S. pharmacy owners about these insane generic drug price increases. Over the last year or so, big chain pharmacies, such as CVS and Walgreens, have started to raise generic drug prices to maximize their profits. Now their profit margin is largely the difference between their costs, the wholesale price, and what they can sell it for to individuals, the retail price. Wholesaler pharmacies have apparently realized how much money the big U.S. pharmacy corporations are making on the large profit margins from some generic drugs. These wholesalers want a bigger piece of the pie so they are raising their prices, too. When that happens, good ole’ mom and pop pharmacies, ones that have tried to keep prices down, have to raise their prices, too. So it’s a vicious spiral.
You often don’t have to pay those crazy high prices but you’ve got to shop around. For instance, Nadolol 20mg can be purchased for much less, 100 pills for $52.22, using a prescription drug discount card at a local U.S. pharmacy.
I recommend calling your local pharmacy before you go pick up your medication. If the price is too high then go elsewhere to avoid getting gouged.
I just recently had a drug I was taking and the cost for my 30 day supply was 10.81 and that was in my donut hole already. My son went yesterday to pick up my refill and my price was 178.00. I contacted insurance company to find out if the pharmacy was making an error and was told no, it had gone up drastically because the cost of ingredients had gone up,. Looking into it further and doing some research, I found out that the company and just been purchased on July 1 2014. A bit coincidental don’t you think, that in one months time my medication that I need to control my liver (due to a stem cell transplant) had gone from .18 a pill to 2.95 a pill. I couldn’t afford it so I told my son to leave it there. It is no wonder that many people in this country have to go without medications they need or have to pick and choose which one they are going to take. It truly is sad.
Change pharmacy’s My son had gout, we went to CVS to get his medicine. I called to find out how long it would be and how much the medicine cost. I was told it would take 2 hours to fill and the cost was 76.00. We picked up the prescription and went to a locally owned pharmacy and got the same medicine for 15.00. I have been using CVS for years because they take our insurance, but without using any insurance card at our locally owned pharmacy we paid much less.
Lorri – That’s serious. You should take medications prescribed by your doctor.
Have you spoken with your doctor about lower cost alternatives? Did you call around to other pharmacies? If you can’t find an affordable option, you could compare prices on PharmacyChecker.com to find a lower price internationally.
This is in reply to your comment to lorri, you said thats serious that you should take your meds prescribed by the doc.
Heres the scoop. That price, 178.00 she quoted, that would be the same a a billion bucks for me. There isn’t any chance in heaven or hell that i could even come up with that kind of money to buy a drug. I take several drugs myself. one of which i have to buy or i will be back in surgery in less than a couple months for a bypass. Thats effient. two years ago it was 35.00 (my copay). TODAY, i pay 58.00 (my copay) and it keeps going up and up. Seriously the ingredients do not cost 100% more than they did 2 years ago. IF they say they are, i’ll call them a bald faced liar. I just had to turn down a med today my doctor prescribed to help with my diabetes because it was 45.00 and i don’t have it. My doctor can’t do anything about it, he’s as frustrated as i am.
Second med i take is insulin cost me 75.00 per vial. I use 3 vials a month, and the other insulin that goes with it is 75 a vial and i use 4 vials a month of that. Needless to say, being on a fixed income social security, i don’t take insulin anymore. can’t get it. I’ basically will just have to die when it gets bad enough.
That also doesn’t count the other drugs i need and even the generics are tripling and quadrupling in price and thats unforgivable to deny us medication through price increases.
Right now my message to pharmacies and manufactuerers is a big hearty FU.
Went to WalMart yesterday to refill a prescription for AdVair under my Covered California BlueCross insurance. I was told co-pay for the product was $235. The price without co-pay was $260. I declined and ordered it from Canada. Ordered two for $59 each. I know from experience what I will receive is the exact same product, manufactured by GSK. This criminal company is simply ripping us off. The same product is available over the counter in Mexico for $47. It is the exact same product with the same ingredients and physical design, with a different brand label. I guess GSK has to pay a lot more for labels in the US. I am done with drug cartels that call themselves pharma companies.
There is a simple reason : OBAMACARE. And the same reason my doctor now charges $210 per visit rather than the $60 of the day before Obamacare. It’s called price gauging. All those doctors were telling people they had to raise the price to cover all those new customers that ARE coming their way and needed to cover the deductibles they won’t be able to recoup when all those people just don’t pay them. So a 50% deductible not recouped the visit equals $90 per visit and the rest is price gauging which the new law allows. And the race to the past begins. Remember New Jersey’s JUA days? I know…they don’t teach history in the schools anymore. How could you know this was tried and failed before.
I have no doubt that Obama care has something to do with it. Thank Nancy Pelosi and all the other Socialists for this mess.
“Obamacare had absolutely nothing to do with the greediness of pharmaceutical companies. Especially considering that the republicans passed a law prohibiting the government to bargain with them…
it is absolutely because of obamacare. THey STOLE our medicare money to begin with to fund that boondoggle. I paid for my healthcare, all my life, and still pay for my healthcare premiums and copays and now i am having to pay for the other halfs freebie meds that they can sit on their fat butts and do nothing.
Time to toss them to the curb and make them take care of themselves.
I’m glad somebody understands that pharmaceutical companies are ripping off everyone, maybe now, in April of 2017, after the Epipen debacle people will be a little more educated about where the buck stops. $$$$$ Right in the pocket of the CEO.
I just picked Clobetasol Propionate 5% 30g tube from TARO pharmaceuticals, last script was $31.39 and within the last three months it went up to $165.69. Shame, Shame, Shame on TARO, and a big bad boy to Obama. Warfarin went from $3.00 to 33.85 in 30 days. Methadone 10 mg for back pain went from 36.99 To $75.99 in 30 days for a 15 day supply!!!! NO INSURANCE (applied as ordered by Obama) and sent a 14 page letter saying I , with no income, do NOT qualify and they “choose not to cover me at this time”
What a sorry state this country has become
I wonder if you guys could comment on this one. Although it is a generic drug question, it’s a little different.
I’m an optometrist. In eyecare, one of the diagnostic agents we use to dilate the pupils is phenylephrine. It comes in both 2.5% and 10%. In the past, there were several brand name and quite a few generic manufacturers.
The cost to us was from about $4 to $10 a bottle for generic. Last year at some point the FDA changed something about the rules regarding how the drug was manufactured, packaged or sold. I’m not really sure exactly what. Perhaps you know what that change was.
In any event, the change caused ALL the manufactures of the drug besides Bausch and Lomb to drop out of the market. B&L continued to make both the brand and generic version of the drug, but over the following 2-8 months, they increased the cost of the generic version from about $10 a bottle to over $70 a bottle.
Is this simply price gauging by B&L?
Hi Dr. Crandon – That’s insane. Generally, FDA is taking more enforcement actions against drug manufacturers, often but not always for good reason, that lead to fewer competitors in the marketplace and that results in higher prices. But you didn’t come here asking about econ 101. I don’t know the answer to that question but I will look into it. It sounds like a mixture of regulatory actions and price gouging!
We love to hear from medical professionals so thanks for stopping by.
Yes, blame the government and the greed that has been running rampant among businesses from Big Pharma to Big Chain Pharmacies, to mediocre middle-man wholesalers and on and on! The companies (and their lame policies) that I really credit for some of the crazy price gouging we see are the third-party drug benefit management organizations.
Case-in-point: the sky rocketing prices of injectible B-12!
Given the number of elderly we have in this country, for whom pernicious anemia and genuine B-12 deficiency exist, and the ever increasing number of persons who have had gut-altering bariatric surgery who are now dependent on injectible B-12 as well, and then add in the folks who flock to weight loss clinics to receive it, ostensibly for ‘cosmetic’ reasons, and it’s easy to see why we have such a shortage of injectible b-12!
Short supplies of parenteral B-12 has been stated as the rationale for why pharmacies (such as Walgreens) engage in price gouging. For example, one patient’s monthly supply of parenteral B-12 cost under $12 just 3 weeks ago, and now costs almost 4 times that much! Perhaps the patient wouldn’t have noticed so much, except that parenteral B-12 is an out-of-pocket expense. This old, reliable–and for the longest time, very cheap–drug has been blacklisted by most insurers in favor of the prescription drug Metanx. The idiocy of the situation is that B-12 injections (I.M. or S.C.) are still THE GOLD STANDARD for treatment of pernicious anemia! Metanx costs so very much more than B-12 and doesn’t do diddly to help patients who have problems with absorption of the nutrient. Injectible B-12 is needed in those cases. So why are the pharmacy benefit management companies willing to pay much much more for a drug with lesser clinical application for addressing one category of disease? I can’t say for sure, but the words “collusion” and “kick-backs’ come to mind! I really don’t think it’s because the pharmacy management firms give a rodent’s rear end about patient ‘comfort’ or ‘preference’ when it comes to shots versus pills. It’s all about the green, and who is giving more of it to whom, and all that is happening behind the scenes – potentially sordid kinds of things that we patients and health care providers are not generally privy to.
I just picked up my Moms medicine at Freds in White Bluff Tn. The price was 63.00 dollars . Mom said that was to High. I called Walmart In Dickson Tennessee for the same Medicine it was 37.00 Dollars . I believe Freds Is Gouging Senior Citizen.
Local Michigan store MEIJER has tried to charge a $100. for a co-pay when switched to Walmart the deductible was as it should be $50 . A set price should be the same at both location or insurance company should ban stores that do not comply with agreed prices , lets see the reactions on store chains , and shouldn’t the federal and state agency’s step in and protect consumers
Same story. CVS wanted over $81 for 2 prescriptions I had transferred from a Rite Aid where I had paid $19.98 for both. They were the exact same – same # of generic pills. The pharmacist said it was not a mistake, that they do not match prices, that they do not set prices, that prices are set annually by their “Board”. I believe they should go back to selling cigarettes to make their profits instead of profiting on medications people need. Remember their big ad campaign that they were promoting good health?
as a nurse case manager, I can tell you it has nothing to do with Obamacare and all to do with corporate greed by drug companies. shop around–it’s absolutely vital, and can be done online.