Prescription drug costs - let's hear your stories/rants

[tRidiot]

So I picked up a sample at work the other day, and I was curious... I decided to look up the cost. Now, the most accurate way I know of to see what a drug would cost Joe Schmoe off the street to buy it is to use GoodRx. I have this app on my phone and usually use it several times a day to show people costs....

So this drug is for pain and inflammation and according to GoodRx, to buy this drug without insurance would cost you... get ready.... $2,584 for 90 tablets. And it's a 3x daily med, so that is one month's worth.

Now... this is a combination drug containing famotidine (Pepcid) for your stomach, and ibuprofen (Advil) for pain and inflmmation. To buy separate bottles of these meds it would cost you $18.99 (for generic Pepcid) and $12.99 (for a bottle of 500 generic ibuprofen). Obviously these can be had even cheaper (per pill) when purchased in higher quantities.

Sooo... let's just take those numbers and calculate.

For a dose of the generics (5 pills) it is $0.10 worth of ibuprofen and $0.21 worth of famotidine. All available over the counter. A grand total of:

$0.31/dose or less than $1/day.

For this med (Duexis), it would cost you .... $86.13 per day.

For the same damned medicine. Just in a combined-pill form.

Just wow... so tell us some of your prescription medication stories, if you don't mind sharing. I'll answer some questions some might have about various meds, too, and maybe could give you some advice on if there might be some cheaper options you could talk to your doctor about - remember... don't go telling your doctor, "Some fool on the interwebs done tol' me you's a idiot and I should be on XXXXX med instead o' what you's got me on!" These may help you with some ideas of things to bring UP to your doctor, TALK ABOUT the various side effects, and why they may have a very specific reason they might want you on a more expensive medicine - sometimes there may be interactions with other meds you don't know about, some side effects that could crop up, or maybe your doc has had a number of patients who had problems with one of the cheaper alternatives, and doesn't like using them anymore.

There are a million reasons out there that could be pertinent, but if I give you some ideas of things to DISCUSS, then it opens lines of communication with your provider, and could possibly save you a few bucks.

 

[FreeSpiritBalloon]

I have been taking this combination for months since my nurse told me The Duexis RX wasn’t covered. I hope others have suggestions like this. Health care is insanely expensive these days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DavidMcmillan]

One arm of the company I retired from is Solvay Pharmacuticals. I was on their campus for a conference several years ago, and one presentation was on the development, testing, and marketing of any new drug. I don't remember much about the actual numbers, but the time and cost of bringing a drug to market was astronomical, and then they only have 7 years (I think I remember that correctly) to recoup that cost and turn a profit.

They do seem to be pretry profitable though. I would think there are ways to reduce those costs, like doing away with all the excessive advertising.

I would love for Congress to work on this issue instead of trying to eliminate cow farts.

 

[Aries]

I paid $10 for an Advil in the hospital once.

 

[Timmy59]

A vitamin C tablet and a zinc tab is near the same a Zicam, for cold relief, I don't take anything currently and the wife's run us mere $10 a refill due to insurance of course..

 

[tRidiot]

I have been taking this combination for months since my nurse told me The Duexis RX wasn’t covered. I hope others have suggestions like this. Health care is insanely expensive these days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Personally, I would ask your physician why he prescribed that medicine? That particular drug sat in our samples closet for years because our providers saw no use for it.

 

[tRidiot]

One arm of the company I retired from is Solvay Pharmacuticals. I was on their campus for a conference several years ago, and one presentation was on the development, testing, and marketing of any new drug. I don't remember much about the actual numbers, but the time and cost of bringing a drug to market was astronomical, and then they only have 7 years (I think I remember that correctly) to recoup that cost and turn a profit.

Lyrica was approved to market in 2004. It was just granted a 6-month extension on the patent, pushing generic availability back until at least June. That's over 15 years of retail sales. Actually it was Dec 2004, so let's call it 14.5 years.

 

[DRC458]

I had a prescription for Robaxin 500mg. First one, then a second insurer, quit covering it at all. I've still got some, so I don't need a refill right now, but I'm gonna' have to have an alternative.

 

[Glock 40]

So my biggest complaint was in 2012 large corporation I worked for added gender reassignment to my insurance. WTF??? At the same time to get my kids a bottle of Flonaze was $120 a month per kid and myself. So my wife can get an Addadicktoome but my kids who were born allergic to everything but dogs and cats can't have nose spray for a cheap copay? Then 2 years later it goes OTC and I can get 5 bottles at Costco for $20.

 

[skyhawk1]

So I picked up a sample at work the other day, and I was curious... I decided to look up the cost. Now, the most accurate way I know of to see what a drug would cost Joe Schmoe off the street to buy it is to use GoodRx. I have this app on my phone and usually use it several times a day to show people costs....

So this drug is for pain and inflammation and according to GoodRx, to buy this drug without insurance would cost you... get ready.... $2,584 for 90 tablets. And it's a 3x daily med, so that is one month's worth.

Now... this is a combination drug containing famotidine (Pepcid) for your stomach, and ibuprofen (Advil) for pain and inflmmation. To buy separate bottles of these meds it would cost you $18.99 (for generic Pepcid) and $12.99 (for a bottle of 500 generic ibuprofen). Obviously these can be had even cheaper (per pill) when purchased in higher quantities.

Sooo... let's just take those numbers and calculate.

For a dose of the generics (5 pills) it is $0.10 worth of ibuprofen and $0.21 worth of famotidine. All available over the counter. A grand total of:

$0.31/dose or less than $1/day.

For this med (Duexis), it would cost you .... $86.13 per day.

For the same damned medicine. Just in a combined-pill form.

Just wow... so tell us some of your prescription medication stories, if you don't mind sharing. I'll answer some questions some might have about various meds, too, and maybe could give you some advice on if there might be some cheaper options you could talk to your doctor about - remember... don't go telling your doctor, "Some fool on the interwebs done tol' me you's a idiot and I should be on XXXXX med instead o' what you's got me on!" These may help you with some ideas of things to bring UP to your doctor, TALK ABOUT the various side effects, and why they may have a very specific reason they might want you on a more expensive medicine - sometimes there may be interactions with other meds you don't know about, some side effects that could crop up, or maybe your doc has had a number of patients who had problems with one of the cheaper alternatives, and doesn't like using them anymore.

There are a million reasons out there that could be pertinent, but if I give you some ideas of things to DISCUSS, then it opens lines of communication with your provider, and could possibly save you a few bucks.

PM me some time, I can give you some insight on cost.