This is old, but bares (bears?) repeating

[Guest guest]

Very InterestingA car company can move its factories to Mexico and

claim it's a free

market. A toy company can outsource to a Chinese subcontractor and claim

it's a free market.

 

A major bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes and claim

it's a free market

 

We can buy HP printers made in Mexico. We can buy shirts made in

Bangladesh. We can purchase almost anything we want from many different

countries, BUT heaven help the elderly who dare to buy their prescription drugs

from a Canadian or Mexican pharmacy. That's called un-American!

 

If you think the pharmaceutical companies don't have a powerful lobby,

think again!!!!

 

(Please forward this to every person you know over age 50)

 

IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY!!!!

 

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 chart below speaks for itself.

 

DRUG NAME 100 TAB PRICE ACTUAL COST MARKUP

Celebrex 100 mg $130.27 $0.60

21,712%

Claritin 10 mg $215.17 $0.71

30,306%

Keflex 250 mg $157.39 $1.88

8,372%

Lipitor 20 mg $272.37 $5.80

4,696%

Norvasc 10 mg $188.29 $0.14

34,493%

Paxil 20 mg $220.27 $7.60

2,898%

Prevacid 30 mg ]$44.77 $1.01

34,136%

Prilosec 20 mg $360.97 $0.52

69,417%

Prozac 20 mg $247.47 $0.11

224,973%

Tenormin 50 mg $104.47 $0.13

80,362%

Vasotec 10 mg $102.37 $0.20

51,185%

Xanax 1 mg $136.79 $0.024

569,958%

Zestril 20 mg $89.89 $3.20

2,809%

Zithromax 600 mg $1,482.19 $18.78

7,892%

Zocor 40 mg $350.27 $8.63

4,059%

Zoloft 50 mg $206.87 $1.75

11,821%

*****

 

Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought

everyone I knew should know about this. Please read the following and pass

it on. It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why

they can afford to put a Walgreens on every corner .

 

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 for100 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 over $700. 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.

 

I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and

pasting it into your own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an

e-mail address.

 

 

 

http://www.blueaction.org

" Better to have one freedom too many than to have one freedom too few. "

http://www.sharedvoice.org/unamerican/