# I'm speechless



## WriteON (Mar 26, 2018)

Doctor prescribes an Rx today. Pharmacist calls me and wants to talk. Tells me the cost is $685 for a 2oz. tube of ointment.  I tell him I'll take 2. We both crack up. I obviously declined the order. The drug companies are professional shake down artists. It's good to be king. It's good to be the only show in town.


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## leehljp (Mar 26, 2018)

I have a cousin that the same thing happened to him - 2 oz ointment was almost $700.00 

Ridiculous!


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## MRDucks2 (Mar 26, 2018)

Wife had one a couple of years ago. Around $865 but if you got a card from the pharmacy from the manufacturer and registered on the web it was only around $45. Something’s not right. 


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## magpens (Mar 26, 2018)

Don't you get 98% off coupons down there ? . You should move up here ... coupons accepted all week long, not just on Mondays !

But you'll have to do without sunshine.


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## thewishman (Mar 26, 2018)

Delivered for a pharmacy, one bottle of pills was $28000 - it was more than $700 per pill.


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## Herb G (Mar 27, 2018)

My current meds run around $3K a month. Thank God I have good insurance thru my wondrous wife. The meds runs me about $250 / month with it.

I was once given a r/x for some liquid pain meds.
A 30 day supply was $1700. I said no thanks.

My Dad died in 1990 from cancer. The platinum solution they gave him was $165,000 each before he died anyway.


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## turncrazy43 (Mar 27, 2018)

Not sure who the biggest crooks in the world are, politicians or drug companies. Perhaps a tie.
Turncrazy43


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## Rounder (Mar 27, 2018)

turncrazy43 said:


> Not sure who the biggest crooks in the world are, politicians or drug companies. Perhaps a tie.
> Turncrazy43




They work together so it's a gang.


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## WriteON (Mar 27, 2018)

Rounder said:


> turncrazy43 said:
> 
> 
> > Not sure who the biggest crooks in the world are, politicians or drug companies. Perhaps a tie.
> ...



You broke the code. $10 would be way too much for a 2 0z tube of ointment but why sell it cheap if it can drain a customer/patient.

Guaranteed that pot will be affordable.  Affordable Pot for everyone...medically, recreationally or just get wasted before going on job interview or behind the wheel. Everybody lets get stoned.


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## gtriever (Mar 27, 2018)

Shop around, you may get a better price. Wifey had to go on Obamacare and the Carrier pharmacy wanted close to 600 for her meds. Same with most of the major pharmacies. She finally found a lower price at Kroger, of all places, for 53 dollars. They explained that it's all about the price contracts they negotiate.


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## mark james (Mar 27, 2018)

I had an allergic reaction 4 years ago - skin rashes.  One of the ointments we tried (insurance paid most) was $400.  It made the rash worse; used 2x.


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## pshrynk (Mar 27, 2018)

I spend far too much of my time trying to figure out a medication regimen that my patients can afford with the combination of what their insurance will pay and what the pharmas will charge.


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## Herb G (Mar 27, 2018)

pshrynk said:


> I spend far too much of my time trying to figure out a medication regimen that my patients can afford with the combination of what their insurance will pay and what the pharmas will charge.



I wish my Dr. would get his head out of his laptop long enough to examine me & find out what the problem is in real life. I had a rather pointed discussion with him the last time I saw him.

I found another Dr. instead. I pay the same no matter which Dr. I see.


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## maxwell_smart007 (Mar 27, 2018)

Pharmacy pricing is indeed a tricky issue - I can understand research and development costs and how significant those can be considering the number of failed phase 3 trials, and the costs of doing business, but I really dislike when patents for established medicines are bought up and prices increased exponentially...


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## WriteON (Mar 27, 2018)

pshrynk said:


> I spend far too much of my time trying to figure out a medication regimen that my patients can afford with the combination of what their insurance will pay and what the pharmas will charge.



Thanks for being true professional and caring. Very kind of you for going the extra yard...and you don't have to.


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## Dehn0045 (Mar 27, 2018)

On several occasions we have purchased meds from Canada and Europe at a fraction of the cost for the same exact product, with shipping included.  Or when hospitals charge cash-pay patients 3 or 4 times as much as insurance will reimburse for the same procedure.  Some things just don't make sense...


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## WriteON (Mar 27, 2018)

Would it be fair to call it gouging and profiteering.


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## denharv (Mar 27, 2018)

Stepson cut his hand on sheet metal, got infected. Hospital drained it and gave RX for antibiotic. Walgreens wanted $350 for 10 day supply. Got it filled at Target for $18. Somebody needs to go to jail.


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## TonyL (Mar 28, 2018)

You can try the GoodRx app. It will find the lowest "cash" price in the area - often lower than your out of pocket insurance price. https://www.goodrx.com/

My son is an insulin dependent Type 1 diabetic. 15 years ago it was 100 a vile, today it is over 300. it is synthetic, no increased cost to make. But as a capitalist, I have to accept the good with the bad (even though, in the case of medication, pure capitalism is not at play). It can be purchased from Canada for 50 a vile. This is not a recommendation.


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## moke (Mar 28, 2018)

I have a niece, that does cancer research for a Pharma company through a post Doctorate program....she makes 30K a year.....I guess I thought they research drs made good money..evidentially not.....who is getting all this money!


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## MRDucks2 (Mar 28, 2018)

In a past life I attended a couple of days training on reliability and process improvement given by a former Pharmaceutical Reliability Engineer turned consultant. 

In heavy industry, the drivers behind improved reliability are most often driven by reduction in product/production costs. During this training, it became evident the drivers behind Big Pharma were time to market and product availability. 

The focus was on getting to market first and keeping up with demand so no one had a reason to look at another option. Product/production cost was not a top line consideration. 

It would be more closely related to NASCAR than to commodity production like petro/chem, steel, etc. 

Caterpillar once told Ward Burton that they were pleased he could run up front and consistently finish in the top 20. Then they asked his team how far into the top 10 they thought he could finish. Ward’s answer was simple, “How much money do you want to spend?”

It’s not about keeping the cost low in the US, it’s about winning the race. And paying the bill for all of the races they don’t finish. 


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## leehljp (Mar 28, 2018)

Herb G said:


> I wish my Dr. would get his head out of his laptop long enough to examine me & find out what the problem is in real life. I had a rather pointed discussion with him the last time I saw him.
> 
> I found another Dr. instead. I pay the same no matter which Dr. I see.



Back when I was in Japan, specifically Toyota City, I went to a couple of young doctors the last couple of years I was there, and these guys did not diagnose anything without looking through a manual! Kind of creepy to me.

IN the past 3 to 4 years, our long term doctor here in the USA has had an assistant come in for info prep prior to his visit. These assistants enter everything and every word into their computers. Doctor gives personal attention and does diagnosis and treatment, but it is obvious that computers are a major part of all of our visits. An upside to this is that we can go online and see specific results of tests - blood pressure, blood sugar, PSA (me) yearly physicals test results and much much more. 

As to prices, I really hate the way pricing is done: If you have insurance, the insurance negotiates a price of $15 to $30 on basic neighborhood doctor visits, but if no insurance, you are not allowed to negotiate and the price is $150.00 Same thing for most common meds. With ins, it is one price, without another. I hate government intervention, but I wish government would enforce some more even prices at the lower rates. Those who can't afford it are charged the most. LOML and I have had great insurance, but our kids after college were forced into the higher prices until they had a good enough job that paid for the better insurances.


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## sbwertz (Mar 28, 2018)

I was put on xaralto, an anticoagulant, when they discovered some small clots in my lungs.  On my AARP Medicare part D it costs me $37 a month.  My friend's husband has the exact same prescription...same dosage, same strength, different part D drug plan.  She pays $355 a month. (Without insurance it is $450 per month.)

My Dr had given me six weeks worth of sample bottles, so I gave them to her.  To me it was worth about $50.  To her it represented more than $500.


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## WriteON (Mar 28, 2018)

MRDucks2 said:


> It’s not about keeping the cost low in the US, it’s about winning the race. And paying the bill for all of the races they don’t finish.



Skin ointment is not exactly a life saving device.


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## Dehn0045 (Mar 28, 2018)

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that at least some of the drugs with astronomical price increases are off-patent and the price is unchecked because there is only one producer.  And other producers stay away because the price is based only on the monopoly and with even just two competitors the price would drop quickly to the point that any investment would be unjustified.


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## MRDucks2 (Mar 28, 2018)

WriteON said:


> MRDucks2 said:
> 
> 
> > It’s not about keeping the cost low in the US, it’s about winning the race. And paying the bill for all of the races they don’t finish.
> ...





As Sam pointed out below your post, it’s not about criticality of the drugs. The race is to the patent office and to market (with similar drugs) first company wins, sets the price, everyone else moves on. Most will never set up to produce a drug they cannot sell while it is protected. Once the patent expires, tooling up to make a drug on the open market dilutes the price and doesn’t make sense for them. 


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## MRDucks2 (Apr 3, 2018)

This conversation was timely. Wife came down with a bacterial intestine infection. Doc put her on an antibody that wasn’t helping and making her feel worse. Went to Gastro and he put her on a drug specifically made to fight the bacteria without making you sick. 

1 pill every 6 hours for 2 weeks. 56 pills. Not covered by my pretty darn good insurance. One of a kind drug. My cost, $15.50 a pill discounted for cash from $40 a pill by the pharmacy. $868 is a whole bandsaw worth of medicine in a small bottle. 


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## sbwertz (Apr 3, 2018)

When my husband got a MRSA infection in the bone of his toe he was on Daptamycin.  Daily intravenous infusions for 9 weeks at a cost of $355 a dose.  Fortunately, it was covered under his Part B, since we went to an infusion lab for the infusion.  

My son (PhD microbiology) says it is so expensive because it is a "last resort" drug for MRSA.  Normally MRSA is treated with Vancomycin but my husband is allergic to it.  My son  says it is rarely prescribed, only when vancomycin cannot be used.  Because it is rarely prescribed, the manufacturers have to put the price high to try to recover development costs.


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## randyrls (Apr 4, 2018)

I was skiing in Canada (Banff) and I noticed that people were getting drinks at the bar and just flashing a card, (not a credit card), not swiped.  Asked one of them what the deal was.  One of the major drug companies provided doctors with an all expense paid vacation to Banff for them and families.


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## pshrynk (Apr 5, 2018)

Herb G said:


> pshrynk said:
> 
> 
> > I spend far too much of my time trying to figure out a medication regimen that my patients can afford with the combination of what their insurance will pay and what the pharmas will charge.
> ...


I don't even bring the computer up until I've got an idea of where we are going to go with the meds, etc.  when all I had to work with was a pad of paper, I spent a lot more time talking and I just decided to quit being so tech savvy for at least part of the consultation.


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