by Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com and Sam Werbalowsky, Pharmacychecker.com | Jul 17, 2013 | Drug Prices, Online Pharmacies, Prescription Drug Reports
Symbicort is one of the most popular medications used for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD affect over 13 million adults in the U.S., and is responsible for over 100,000 deaths annually. Unfortunately, Symbicort is expensive in the U.S. It’s just under $1,000 for a three –month supply at a local pharmacy in New York, and no low-cost generic is available. Though the manufacturer offers 1 free inhaler for a patient’s first prescription, the annual cost of Symbicort would still be around $3,500.
You can reduce your Symbicort costs by as much as 85% by ordering through a verified online international pharmacy, bringing your annual cost down to as little as $552. View our savings comparisons below.
For a list of PharmacyChecker.com approved pharmacies, click here, or view Symbicort prices here.
Prices and Savings on Symbicort 160 mcg/4.5 mcg (3 inhalers, 120 doses per inhaler):
| Program |
Price |
Savings Compared to Local Price |
| U.S. Local Pharmacy |
$950.99 |
— |
| Discount Card Price at U.S. Pharmacy |
$765.68 |
19% |
| International Online Pharmacy* |
$138.00 |
85% |
Prices as of 7/17/2013. Local pharmacy in New York City. Discount card price from RxCut.com. International Online Pharmacy price is lowest listed of PharmacyChecker.com listed pharmacies.
*Drug is the same as sold in U.S. but may be sold under a different brand name
Tagged with: COPD, Symbicort
by PharmacyChecker.com | Apr 18, 2012 | Drug Importation, Drug Prices, Medication non-adherence, Online Pharmacies
Today we issued a press release showing that the most popular brand name asthma medications are on average 76% less when purchasing from the lowest-cost PharmacyChecker.com-verified online pharmacies than at U.S. bricks and mortar pharmacies. For example, a three month supply of Advair Diskus (250-50mcg/dose), a popular preventative medication, costs $947.97 at a bricks-and-mortar pharmacy in New York City. The same medicine, by the same manufacturer, costs $149.00, at a verified international online pharmacy – a savings of 84%. With such high prices domestically it’s no surprise Americans with asthma often find themselves going without needed treatments and ending up in emergency rooms.
A 2005 study sponsored by Kaiser Family Foundation, Harvard School of Public Health, and USA Today found that 44% of American households with an asthma sufferer are unable to follow prescribed treatments due to cost. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1.7 million Americans went to emergency rooms in 2009 due to their asthma conditions. The CDC attributed such hospitalizations to low adherence to asthma management strategies, which include taking preventative asthma medication. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association last month reported that out-of-pocket costs for medicine were a factor in greater hospitalization rates among children with asthma in the U.S
The health benefits of products such as Advair Diskus, Flovent, and Singulair – preventative asthma medications –are sometimes difficult for patients to ascertain when they are not showing asthma symptoms. Unfortunately, because prices for these products are so high in the United States, Americans view skipping these medications as a way to save money and others simply can’t afford them. If more Americans could find these products at more reasonable prices, such as from verified international online pharmacies, then adherence would improve, leading to less ER visits, better overall health outcomes, and lower healthcare costs for all of us. And with more affordable asthma medication, trips to the grocery store will be less daunting.
For more on asthma medication prices, see the press release.
Tagged with: Advair Diskus, Asthma Medication, Emergency Room Visits, Flovent, Journal of the American Medical Association, Singulair, Symbicort, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
