Let's hear it for Costco, Walmart and www.4rx.com ! (This is just mind-boggling!)  Make sure you read all the way past the list of the drugs.   

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 (mostly from India) that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have  revealed in past issues of this news letter, the largest  percentage of  drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients made in  other countries. In an 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 . 

If you shop right you can often find your prescription costing less than your co-pay!  For instance why pay an $8.00 co-pay to an insurance company when you can find the same thing for $4.00 at Walmart or www.4rx.com ?

Some Examples

 Celebrex: 100 mg  Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27  Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60 Percent markup: 21,712%  www.4rx.com price = $20.00 (90 Pills)

Claritin: 10 mg  Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17  Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71 Percent markup: 30,306%  www.4rx.com price = $65.00  (180 Tabs) 

Lipitor: 20 mg  Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37  Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80 Percent markup: 4,696%  www.4rx.com price = $34.00  (60 Tabs)

Norvasc: 10 mg  Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29  Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14 Percent markup: 134,493%  www.4rx.com price = $25.00  (60 Tabs)

Paxil: 20 mg  Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27  Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60 Percent markup: 2,898%  www.4rx.com price = $92.00  

Prevacid: 30 mg  Consumer price (100 tablets): $44.77  Cost of general active ingredients: $1.01 Percent markup: 34,136%  www.4rx.com price = $42.00  (90 Pills)

Prozac: 20 mg  Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47  Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11  Percent markup: 224,973%  www.4rx.com price = $28.00  (90 Pills)

Tenormin: 50 mg  Consumer price (100 tablets): $104.47  Cost of general active ingredients: $0.13  Percent markup: 80,362%  www.4rx.com price = $21.00 (84 Tabs) 

Zithromax: 600 mg  Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19 Cost of general active  ingredients: $18.78 Percent markup: 7,892%   www.4rx.com price =125.00  (90 Tablets) 

Zoloft: 50 mg  Consumer price: $206.87  Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75  Percent markup: 11,821%  www.4rx.com price =$22.00 (60 Pills)

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 Chain Drug Store on every corner. Recently 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.  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 a drug called cephalexin for a dental infection.   I did not have this drug in my personal pharmacy from India ( www.4rx.com )so I shopped around a bit.

 I used the generic equivalent, which cost $8.62 for 30 pills at Costco and $4.00 at Walmart.  I checked the price at CVS, and I could have bought 30 pills for  $15.81.  

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.