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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 data below speaks for itself.

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

Claritin: 1 0 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
C! ost of g eneral 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. 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 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 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 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 tha t 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. (this is
true)

I went there this past Thursday and asked them. 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

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Our world is geared toward younger families with children. First, there are refrigerators. Ever notice how the doors are now made to hold gallons of milk? Uhm, how many senior citizens or single people need gallons of milk? My fridge has a nifty feature called pull-out shelves for smaller children so they can get items in the back more easily. I don’t think I have ever pulled a shelf forward to reach something, and I have very short arms.

Why don’t they offer a younger family model, a single person model, and a senior citizens model? Seriously. Younger families need all those features such as gallons on the door, extra wide shelves for large platters, etc. Single people like me don’t need that stuff, it just makes the door heavier as we load smaller bottles on the door to make up for the extra space. Seniors keep small amounts of food in their fridge and most don’t use a gallon of milk in a month!

Stoves are made to be childproof. All knobs are now in the back. Uhm, sorry, but I’m short with short arms, and I can’t easily reach to the back of the stove, particularly if a pot is on top of the stove cooking heartily. Every stick an arm over a gas stove burner trying to reach the back? It’s an easy way to remove arm hair, that’s for sure.

My water coolor is childproof. I can’t get hot water out of it unless I push the hot water button a certain way. A service tech once told me that his kids showed him how to use it.

Vehicles have to be the worst. Let’s see, in my SUV the driver and front seat passenger have childproof buttons, and if depressed, they don’t allow you to open the door from the inside, just the outside. I had no idea what that button was until my own parents called me after they bought a new Toyota and were stuck in a parking lot, unable to get out of the car!

This past weekend I had someone in my backseat and they were unable to exit the vehicle unless I opened the door from the outside. I unlocked the door. I locked the door. I set the childproof lock in the front. I unset it. I kept my car in gear. I shut it off. I did everything but dance naked on top of it and the door would not open. I figured it was something with the car alarm, so brought it in today to the alarm place. What was it? CHILDPROOF FEATURE. They opened up the back door and on the frame of the door was a button that was engaged, and over it was a label - CHILDPROOF LOCK. Gee, why didn’t the auto manual tell me about this?? And I had it at the Toyota dealership for hours yesterday!

Why don’t they offer the option to get it non-childproof? I will never, ever have children in my vehicle.

Oh, do you know next year it’s mandatory that all new vehicles have the pull-up type of window knob for electric windows (do vehicles come without electric windows?). Why? Deaths of children who lean on the rocker type switch in a car while the window is partly open. Uhm, why not just make it so that the window will NOT go up if there is a foreign object in the way?

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So, do you agree with it? If you’re unfamiliar with the case, she is the woman who drowned her 5 children several years ago, was found guilty, but the verdict was overturned and she was retried - and the new jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity.

I think the husband has some culpability in all this. He chose to get her pregnant 5 times, and he knew she was ill as she suffered serious bouts of post-partum depression. Yet, he continued to not use birth control (apparently) and she finally cracked.

Now, she had to know what she did was wrong, as she called the authorities after drowning her children. She knew right from wrong. Being found guilty put her in a regular jail with no counseling. Not guilty by reason of insanity means she will be in a mental facility and get counseling.

Should she ever be released?

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At the local Old Country Buffet recently, an employee allegedly murdered the assistant manager. He (and I’m not going to repeat the word allegedly, but this hasn’t been proven in court) lured her to the ladies room to say there was a problem, hit her over the head with a pipe, then stabbed her 20 times. He then called police, said he saw a burglar running through the lot, but other employees contradicted his story and he was finally arrested.

They say he’s mentally challenged with the mental capability of a 5-year old child. He’d worked at the restaurant for 3 years as a dishwasher. The assistant manager had been telling him to stop putting pans in the dishwasher, and for the previous 3 weeks he had been threatening to stab and strangle her.

So, who is at fault here? The assistant manager for yelling at a child? The person who hired a child to handle knives? The parents who allowed a child to work at a job handling knives?

I don’t think blame needs to be placed — but — I do think he should be held responsible for his actions. This was obviously well thought-out and he knew what he did was wrong when he tried to put the police on another track.

If convicted, what do you do with him? Place him in a regular jail? He’s not insane … so a mental facility isn’t warranted ….

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