Here's a clever way Big Pharma is ripping you off.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1.
Men with prostrate cancer, and women with breast cancer, are often prescribed a med to lower certain hormones.
(estrogen for women, testosterone for men)
A side effect of the med can be hot flashes, which for some can be rather debilitating.

So, pharma created a drug treatment which they say is the only one approved by the FDA for hot flashes.
It is called Brisdelle, comes in 7.5 mg, sells as a package of 30 pills, for 240.00 cash price or so.
You can get a discount coupon online to bring the cost down to $190.87 a month.

Here's the trick: Brisdelle is the same drug as Paxil, an antidepressant.
Paxil can be bought as a 10 mg. generic, for 4.00 a month.

2.
Zyban is a pill that is marketed as a stop smoking aid.
Comes in 150 mg.
It can be bought for anywhere from 125.00 to 133.00 a month cash price, WITH a discount coupon,
I could not find the non-coupon price.

but Zyban is the same as Wellbutrin, an old anti-depressant, 150 mg. weirdly costs 1500.00 a month ( 30 tabs) and the discount price is not much lower.

BUT, you can get Zyban as a generic, Bupropion, for 64.00 a month, or coupon price of 14.00 a month.

OR
get Wellbutrin, as a generic, Bupropin again, for...4.00 a month!!! Reg. price at Wal-Mart's famous 4.00 a month formulary.
( Also Sam's Club, Costco, etc)

Now isn't that interesting....same generic drug, different generic prices, depending if the doc writes Wellbutrin or Zyban as the name brand, but you buy as generic.


Btw.....Bupropin, taken for 30 days, was very effective to help me stop smoking, back in 1998.

I am now really curious how many other drug twins are being marketed and priced differently.

For price comparison of the above, I used goodrx.com, cause I find their coupon prices to be effective.

[Warpy]

1. Always look 'em up and always read labels

and they pull the same Shinola with OTC drugs. Plain old Excedrin was one price, and the one with the label "MIGRAINE STRENGTH"
was a higher price. Pills were the same. Likewise, Benadryl for allergies was cheap. Benadryl for INSOMNIA was more expensive.

Always read labels and always watch those weasel words and you'll be healthier and wealthier.

[Achilleaze]

2. Meanwhile, Big Pharma is continuing its troll assault on...

all forms of healthy, natural, non-toxic healing modalities & supplements.

Expect this sick pattern to get worse yet under the regime of Comrade Casino, Inc. & his Republican Cronies.

[GWC58]

3. Well, Trump was for

Medical mj before he was against it! 😫

[SidDithers]

6. Just a bunch of Scientific Materialists, eh?...

Sid

[Laffy Kat]

4. Seems like physicians should know these things.

I know docs in for-profit organizations take $$ from pharmaceutical companies, but docs. in non-profit and/or academic organizations should write for scripts off-label when possible. This really pisses me off.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. They do, depending on the drug.

My oncologist prescribes generic.
Plus, when I found I could get an extremely expensive drug for 90% off, he was willing to write several prescriptions, which I used at several pharmacies, so I could get a dependable supply for the next year with refills.

My general practice md cleverly prescribed low dose Amitriptyline for off label treatment of post shingle nerve pain. Works great, costs me just a few bucks.

I have found that educating myself and then talking to the docs is productive, they are pretty open to patient concerns.

[gulliver]

5. Drugs are out of control.

A hard-working, highly gifted research team finds and develops a drug that helps people at nominal cost. Big Pharma is almost entirely not that. Their business model is bad for humanity. It isn't just the money they suck out of us either. Its also the barely "scientifically justifiable" crap that they pump into us.

Big Pharma played a major role in the opioid epidemic. The profit motive has to be taken out of the drug industry (legal and illegal). It's a monstrosity.

[mrmpa]

7. Read my post from this past February....How Seniors & others are taken to the cleaners......

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027617436

[TheBlackAdder]

9. That's like car parts. There are only a few relay, air cond, brake manufacturers etc.

.


I had a VW, years back, and its oxygen sensors (2) cost over $200.

But, it turned out, that they used the same parts as Ford Mustangs, and the total cost for the two was $30.


A VW group compiled a list of all of the cross-referenced parts to avoid the dealership markup prices.


===


The same applies today. The same relays and parts are made by the same manufacturer and stamped unique parts numbers. It's like how many retail stores sell the same appliances, but the part numbers are slightly off, so you can not comparison shop. Having unique numbers prevents a customer from using another store's ad to do price matching or beating.


.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Interesting.....and good to know. n/t