My pharmacist is not worried about Ebola, he's worried about this:

[hedgehog]

Rapid Price Increases for Some Generic Drugs Catch Users by Surprise

Large price increases in the United States for vital medicines for the young, such as vaccines, have been mirrored by similar rises in some of the most basic treatments for older patients, like digoxin. Though there are many newer types of drugs to treat heart disease, for some patients there are no effective substitutes; digoxin is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.

In recent years, generics have curbed the rise of drug prices, saving the American health care system billions of dollars. After the patents for Lipitor, the cholesterol drug, and Ambien, the sleeping pill, expired in the last few years, for example, generics entered the market and prices plummeted.

But increasingly, experts say, the costs of some generic drugs are going the other way. The prices paid by pharmacies for some generic versions of Fiorinal with codeine (for migraines) and Synthroid (a thyroid medicine) as well as the generic steroid prednisolone have all more than doubled since last year, EvaluatePharma found. In January, the National Community Pharmacists Association called for a congressional hearing on generic drug prices, complaining that those for many essential medicines grew as much as “600, 1,000 percent or more” in recent years. The price jumps especially affected smaller pharmacies, which do not have the clout of big chains to bargain for discounts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/health/some-generic-drug-prices-are-soaring.html?_r=0

An older story, but one that is still relevant.

[Eleanors38]

1. Phew! Caught a whiff of a crowning black market.

[liberal_at_heart]

2. What do we expect? Drug companies get to set their own prices and Medicare can't even

negotiate lower prices. There is nothing to stop drug companies from charging what they want.

[NightWatcher]

3. My methotrexate went from $20- $95 more than a year ago

I hope this doesn't mean another jump is coming

[ballyhoo]

35. Be real careful with that stuff.

[Chellee]

4. Well, God forbid you should need Doxycycline.

My adult daughter used to take it for her acne, but when she went to pick up her script expecting to pay about $11 for a month supply and instead was told that they were going to give her a 2 week supply and it would be over $350, she stopped taking it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/business/officials-question-the-rising-costs-of-generic-drugs.html?_r=1

<Some of the rises have been huge, according to data released by the lawmakers. The price that hospitals and pharmacies pay for a bottle of 500 tablets of doxycycline, a decades-old antibiotic, rose to $1,849 in April, from $20 in October 2013.>

[jen63]

16. Damn, I was just going to bring this up!

I found a tick on my calf last summer and ended up with the "classic bullseye rash", that got bigger, not better. I about passed out when I went to get 14 doxycycline pills. The pharmacist told me that nobody was making a generic, because there wasn't enough cash to be made, so whoever had the rights to that drug could charge as much as they wanted. That med has been around for ever, I remember it when I was a kid. Crazy.

[progressoid]

5. If only there were some sort of liberal, socialist, healthcare law that could address this.

[liberal_at_heart]

8. hmmm. I wonder what that could be.

[SoapBox]

6. And just yesterday listened to some guy on the radio...

blathering away about how there is absolutely NO inflation!

Oh...and if the Fed even dares to think about raising any rates, it will spook and stampede the "markets".

I guess it was just the same old threat to the Fed, that the Wallstreeters want to continue fleecing America.

[littlemissmartypants]

7. Changes stress any system.

Fasten your seat belts and please don't forget your flu shots and mammograms.

Love, Peace and Shelter.
Lmsp 🙌

[ColesCountyDem]

9. I've seen it first hand!

I take hydrochlorothiazide, a GENERIC diuretic that's been around for decades. My last 'scrip was triple the price of the month before.

[SheilaT]

26. I currently take that.

When I was still working it was ten dollars a month. Now I'm on Medicare with an Advantage plan, and it went down to four dollars a month. Then I discovered if I let them mail me a 90 day supply at a time I have no copay at all.

Clearly whatever plan you're on is totally shafting you on the price.

[ColesCountyDem]

27. My co-pay is still the same.

I just noticed on the receipt that the base price had tripled.

[SheilaT]

28. That really is a big difference.

I thought you meant your copay had tripled. Glad it hasn't.

[ColesCountyDem]

29. Re-reading my initial post, I wasn't as clear as I might have been.

[Dustlawyer]

10. Imagine that, and Generic drug manufacturers received full immunity from lawsuits so they

cannot blame attorneys for the rise in prices.

[HuckleB]

15. Interesting.

Do you have a link to a story on that? I'd love to dig into it.

[Dustlawyer]

31. Not good at doing links, guess I should play with that, but the Google will pull up Think Progress,

Info wars and some others if you put in "Generic drug manufacturers immunity". The articles are from 2013. From what I can recall from the time, this was bi-partisan legislation done quietly late at night. They tried to slip it through, which the MSM let them do. Yet another example that Congress provides theater much like the Harlem Globetrotters vs. the Washington Generals, while doing the bidding of the powerful.

[rurallib]

11. Republicans will no doubt obstruct any hearing and the media

- the corporate media - will certainly not report much if any of it.

[cadaverdog]

12. I can't help but feel this is related to the TPP

Pharmaceutical Prices and Patents Impacted by Trade Policy
The federal government is currently negotiating two trade deals that could have great significance for drug pricing. Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have been ongoing for several years and the Obama Administration is seeking to wrap up the 11-country deal by the end of 2013. While the agreed-to text of the TPP is secret, leaked negotiating offers and past experience with similar treaties with Australia and Korea, as well as recent cases under NAFTA, raise big concerns.

[link:http://reducedrugprices.org|

This is somewhat dated, but I'm sure you can find newer and more detailed info.

[HuckleB]

13. Exactly. We need legislation on this issue NOW!

I know it won't happen, but we need it!

[kestrel91316]

14. I've had some of my old standby drugs, critical to daily patient care, go up

1000% virtually overnight lately. And we are talking generics that used to be easy to stock and let sit and if they didn't get used up it was ok. Now each bottle is a major investment.

[GoCubsGo]

17. The big drug companies have been buying up the companies that make generics.

Thom Hartmann was talking about this a few days ago. Big Pharma is buying up the little generics guys and jacking up the prices. I guess there have also been some mergers going on. A few big companies=no competition=higher prices.

[liberal_at_heart]

19. bingo! And who is going to stop them? Nobody. That's who.

[Raine1967]

20. I heard that. I was looking for a link about it.

It doesn't surprise me.

[Raine1967]

18. This is an explanation:

http://billmoyers.com/2014/10/06/allow-big-pharma-rip-us/

A crappy one, but it helps to explain it.

[Faryn Balyncd]

21. When the Koch Brothers corned the doxycycline market the price went up 2,500% overnight, from $4 to

... in the range of $100 for a 10 day prescription.


It's to enforce the antitrust laws.

[Enthusiast]

22. This amounts to corporate abuse.

A good government would enact price controls.

[heaven05]

24. greed, nothing but

good old american, capitalistic greed.

[hedgehog]

25. Here in New York, we have laws against gouging after a weather disaster,

and the pharmacist was livid that the laws don't apply to drugs. Thinking about it, the companies create an artificial shortage of something that is absolutely needed. That sounds like gouging to me.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

30. Then there are expensive non-prescription drugs.

Allegra-D is non-scrip, but you have to pick up a card off the shelf and present it to the pharmacy and show them ID so that they know you're not making meth. 24 hour Allegra-D is $24.99 for 15 pills, one per day. That's $1.67 a pill.

[hedgehog]

32. Check the package for the generic name of the Allegra, and you may find a store brand

generic for a lower price. Good luck! Nothing worse than a stuffy head from allergies. That's the only good thing about the arrival of the frost - it knocks down the pollen for another year.

[mrmpa]

33. If you can check Costco...........

I used to use Allegra-D, but it became cost prohibitive. I now use daily, Costco's Alle-Clear, 10% loratadine, non drowsy, 365 pills for under $12. I take one a day, right now my allergies are brutal & I take a second before I go to bed.

[ballyhoo]

34. I got my first prescription for Hydrocodone filled a few days ago

since it went level 2. I've been taking this stuff for 20 years because I have arthritis and diabetes. Rather than going to the doctor two times a years, I now have to go four times a year (double the cost for appointments). At each appointment the doctor has to give me three written scripts. There can be no refills on any script. So....under the new system the only thing that has changed is the doctor makes more money by more appointments, has more hassle and the patient has to pay more money for getting the same amount of yearly prescriptions. Who is really hurt is the elderly and the poor, who can't pay for the extra appointments or endure the pain of extra trips. More people with chronic pain have started offing themselves my doctor told me via contacts with other doctors. Was all this really necessary or was it done so part of the government can justify their existence? I've talked to many members of my former diabetic website I turned over to the members in January because I was forced to break one of my rules--so I resigned. Some of these folks have bad diabetic neuropathy and take Hydrocondone just to live. Some of these folks are having a real hard time. I help them as best I can, but it is not enough and is dangerous with the NSA all over the place watching everything. As we cement our new second world status move from nascent to firmly arrived I just wonder what is next in the neocon bag of wonderfulness?

[Hortensis]

37. Renewal for my $10 tetracycline for rosacea a year or two ago was $200.

I went home without it (same problem with doxycycline), googled, and learned that neonatal intensive care units were having trouble procuring the drug (I've forgotten which one, they're very similar). Apparently, though, it was commonly used for saving the lives of preemies/newborns.

Production of the drugs, which required ingredients from various nations, had stopped because a pharmaceutical company in the chain had decided it could make more money from converting the factory to something else, resulting in a catastrophic shortage. I wouldn't have renewed even if I could have afforded it, which I could not.

I don't understand those who support ideologies in situations where they simply don't work. Whatever the situation, the answer must work. Before the 80s move of America's right to the far right, plenty of conservatives were sensible and responsible.