Story verified @http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/generic.asp
Make sure you read to the end. You will be amazed.


Let's hear it for Costco! (This is just mind-boggling!)

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 .

Celebrex:100 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60
Percent markup: 21,712%


Claritin:10 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $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
Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14
Percent markup: 134,493%


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 tablets): $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: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%


Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone should know about this.
It pays to shop around! This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreen's on every corner. On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit , did a story on generic drug prices gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. 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.

I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and passing it into your own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail address.

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:sdavis@doc.gov

i don't believe that you're paying just for the ingredients...it's more about the research and for continuing development of new medicines.

*sees the lightning and powers down her computer*

I don't think it's just this part of health that is the only rip off, I think companies that supply hospitals and doctors and insurance companies, everyone related to the industry probably is screwing us in one way or the other.

My elderly neighbors tell me what they are charged for a test or drug or whatever, and then tell me what the government is being billed and it's outrageous.

If we wonder why health care is so expensive we can probably look in all directions and find greed and rip offs.

I was told that the research and advertising is what makes drugs so expensive.

You're Not! But it's Ridiculous That We are Forced to pay this and the Drug Companies and Pharmacies are Allowed to Do it. Tar and Feathers anyone

Research should go towards herbal remedies and getting them FDA certified, or we should be getting better medicine...because that is a hell of a lot of money being made and not a whole hell of a lot of research coming out of it.

on top of that when a Trade Mark or Patent is Gonna Run out the Company will Change the Color or Size of the Pill to Keep Reaping the the Outrageous Profits.

Some might want to investigate just how much bloody research it actually takes, the cost of that and the cost of advertising and giving doctors freebies ect to use certain drugs. I bet you would find one heck of a story. What we believe goes on and what really goes on is very interesting.

I tend to believe that the alternative medicine industry could be another avenue of investigation on cost etc. Personally I do as much as I can to avoid having to be dependent on either.

Ultimately We Need to Take our Health into our Own Hands and Become Healthier and get away from this Spider web.

Very true, I can't afford it (not that I use it anyway) so I've been working on living a healthier lifestyle all around. Still, where there is one...there are millions feeding into the medicine cabinet on a daily basis, and millions more that don't have a choice in the matter.

Well maybe not just that but how about drugs that don't have side affects worse then you illness. Wanna explain how the hell you can get so much money for a drug that seems more dangerous then dieing of the original disease, if i said that right.

Seems to me if your going to do the reasearch .. 'complete it' and give the public a drug that won't make you even sicker.

Hard to argue with that...

This is why they say by simply turning to generic drugs, the total cost of healthcare would decrease by 25%.

Wow, now I didn't know that..

Absolutely, until they figure out as way to turn that around as well. Personally I do my level best to know what foods are the most healthy to prevent most sickness. So I can avoid all of it. As a general rule I very rarely get sick. And use old time remedies herbal and otherwise to help with minor issues.

Yes. They have to pay the salaries and benefits of those researchers. They want to keep the best scientists working on the research.

Add the pharmacists to that picture and their salaries and benefits.

I would say that is what they might like us to assume, winx, but I am not so sure that I am on board with that anymore when I see the outrageous costs of drugs for people that really have to have them an how many people must depend on them, all over the world.

Yes, it is sad and it sucks.

We have a couple of big name teaching hospitals here. They hire those scientists. We want the best scientists here. There's overhead costs too. My child's Uncle is a Pharmacist.

I do know how high those prices are. I have older relatives that have no choice but to get their meds from Canada because Medicare doesn't cover prescriptions. It is difficult for them to even do that. They have to come up with the money to order 3 mths. of medicine at a time. That is just wrong.

I know I am probably going to get slammed for this, but have you ever thought about what scientists and doctors and all those associated with the health community make? How is it when they make so much money, that 'anyone' can afford health care, I mean serious heath care?

I know I know, they had to get loans to study, then they have experience so they should make as much money as they want. And ya ya, life is not fair. But don't we as human beings have the power to make life a bit fairer? Do doctors and scientists etc have to make so much money that the whole population has to work ten time harder and longer just to pay what these folks demand? Is that unreasonable a question to ask I wonder?

Look I have lived in an unfair world for 59 years and expect I will for another couple of decades maybe, I am not complaining, I am quite used to living with in my means, however living with in my means also means that I better hope to die in my sleep of old age because if I get really sick, I am going to die miserably even with what insurance my budget could afford, which is pretty crappy coverage.

I am a bit tired so I might have to wait till tommorow for my bashing I expect to get..

I know that to get a drug approved from the government it takes roughly ten years and over a billion dollars.In reality we can say the drugs and technology you get from hospitals are stuck in 1999.But good article you posted(bored).

when did snopes become a reliable source? lol