Cold-sore cream: $34 in Canada, $2,532 in U.S.

[Newsjock]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Jim Makichuk bought a 5-gram tube of Zovirax, a prescription cold-sore cream, a few years ago in Canada for $34.65. That was the over-the-counter price; no insurance involved. He recently purchased a fresh 5-gram tube from a Kaiser Permanente pharmacy in Los Angeles. It cost him $95, or nearly three times as much as the Canadian price — with insurance.

But that's not what raised Makichuk's eyebrows. What surprised him was a report Kaiser sent him on prescriptions he filled in January. There was the tube of Zovirax, and there was the $95 payment Makichuk made. And beside that was a listing for what Kaiser paid for the cream: $2,532.80.

... Laurie Little, a Valeant spokeswoman, said the cost of the cream "takes into account many factors, the cost of the active and inactive ingredients, the manufacturing process, the packaging and its related process, as well as the distribution and a myriad of other expenses."

... As for why the Zovirax cream available in Canada is so cheap, that's simple: It's manufactured in Britain, not the U.S., and British law requires that drug prices be reasonable. So does Canadian law.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20150306-column.html

[one_voice]

1. This right here:

As for why the Zovirax cream available in Canada is so cheap, that's simple: It's manufactured in Britain, not the U.S., and British law requires that drug prices be reasonable. So does Canadian law.

If there's a take-away from Makichuk's story, it's that America's healthcare system is designed to maximize cash flow for its corporate players and that there are few safeguards to keep costs down

.

[City Lights]

34. Exactly!

Sickens me to the core!

[Scuba]

36. /\_/\_This right here_/\_/\

[kacekwl]

40. Because of the enormous amount of $$$$ involved the only way out

of this nonsense is some sort of revolt by the people who the game is rigged against , us.

[Systematic Chaos]

44. Present and accounted for....

[LiberalElite]

47. I'm asthmatic -

have ok health insurance through my employer. The inhaler I use was supposed to go off patent a couple years ago. I followed this news for some time, looking forward to being able to get a generic. No such luck. Big Pharma did whatever they had to do and - there's still no generic for my prescribed inhaler. I can afford the co-pay but that's not the point. I could be getting the same goddamn drug for much less. But then who's more important in this country, the actual human person or the corporate person?

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Yeah, this is definitely a problem. Americans are gouged on pharmaceuticals.

I was looking at the prices of a generic equivalent of a popular HIV combo (Atripla) that is sold overseas.

1 month supply of Viraday in India = $62
1 month supply of Atripla in US = $2200

Same ingredients. 3548% more expensive here.

Of course there are some patent issues involved and it is considered a generic, but even in the US, if it were generic, it would probably cost over 1000 a month.

This is yet another place in our health care system that needs to be looked at.

[Doctor_J]

3. we're gouged on everything when it comes to healthcare, and it's because our government is

as corrupt as the old USSR.

[YOHABLO]

4. The Game is Rigged folks ... wake the 'F' up.

[Thespian2]

5. In Canada

Most drugs for senior citizens, $15.50 for a month's supply.

[BlueJazz]

6. I'm extremely happy that Health-Care Companies don't sell food.

Bread- $50.00
"takes into account many factors, the cost of the active and inactive ingredients, the manufacturing process, the packaging and its related process, as well as the distribution and a myriad of other expenses."

[erronis]

28. Just wait until the only water you can get is bottled

And sold via prescription.

Of course, if you are living in the US Southwest/West, your costs will be 500% more because of shipping and "evaporation".

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Americans, please! Tie yourselves into a pretzel if you must to explain...

... why you're not being f#@ked in the ass by the pharmaceutical industry.

The rest of the world realizes it all too well and finds it more than pathetic that you don't admit it and, more importantly, that you don't confront it.

But then, America is the home of senators who believe that snowballs disprove the existence of global climate change.

[Doctor_J]

39. See, the president is playing 12-D chess, and we can't let the criminal be the enemy of the good

and this is all Liebermann's fault. And...Osama bin Laden!

[Oubaas]

8. Hectic...

...and whatever you do, don't get bit by a venomous snake. You won't like it when you see what they charge for a shot of antivenin.

[Fuddnik]

18. If you can find it......

A couple of years ago Phizer bought out the pharmaceutical manufacturer who made the majority of anti-venin, decided it was unprofitable and ceased production. They also laid off 16,000 employees.

They keep tabs on all the anti-venin in hospitals, around the country. During a big hurricane clean-up, it was discovered that Louisiana had zero doses of coral snake anti-venin. Florida had two, ......

[Orrex]

9. We're #1! We're #1!

[erronis]

29. Realizing you're being somewhat <sarcastic>

I hope...

I get so tired of people arguing with me about how US healthcare is obviously better than Canadian since "everyone" in Canada comes across the border to get their major needs taken care of.

Anecdotal Evidence is about the only evidence that most US will accept. We can show them charts and tables of data going back 20 years, but it doesn't compete with what Molly from up the road told us.

[LiberalElite]

48. in people being fkd over, yes absolutely. nt

[AllyCat]

15. Really? Why do you say that?

Have you checked the prices of prescription meds?

[Fuddnik]

16. Sorry, but it's accurate.

Do you see all the nice new commercials on TV for Hep C treatments?

In the US, the treatment lasts for 180 days. One pill a day. Each pill costs $1,000. $180,000 total treatment.

The company re-priced it around the world. Egypt? 180 day treatment costs $900, or $.50 per pill. And it's the only halfway effective treatment on the market. The drug supplier bought out the manufacturer for a billion dollars. Then gouges everyone to death.

Nader named it correctly. "America's pay or die healthcare system".

[jmowreader]

20. Oh, you're leaving parts out...

The company that makes those pills makes two different ones.

The first is Sovaldi. It costs $1000/pill, is taken for either 12 or 24 weeks depending on the variety of Hep C you have, and is taken in conjunction with one or two other drugs. (Go to http://www.gilead.com and learn more.)

The other is Harvoni, which is Sovaldi PLUS the other drug it needs to work. This is even more than Sovaldi (which is priced at highway robbery levels already) and is taken for as many weeks.

And is it just me, or is there a certain creepiness about a company that makes a drug to treat a disease a lot of fundies think is "God's punishment for sin" naming itself after the country "The Handmaid's Tale" is set in?

[Scootaloo]

25. There is no balm in Gilead n/t

[dolphinsandtuna]

43. Scoot beat me to it

no balm on Gilead indeed.

Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

[crim son]

17. I understand the sentiment but

half my family is Canadian, living in Canada, and there is no question that the situation described in the article is not terribly unusual. No matter where you stand politically there are some aspects of human existence that should not be exploited for profit, wouldn't you agree? We are not monsters. The American health care system's priority is not healthcare!

[erronis]

31. You're right - it's not healthcare, it's taking care of the healthcare privateers

[Aerows]

23. No, it isn't by a long shot

Americans are getting pharmaceuticals from Canada that are produced in Australia and the UK because they have price controls. 1/5 the price. I am dead serious.

It's the difference between 200/month and 40/month.

Our health care system, those who enable the price gouging and our entire medical infrastructure is abysmal. No one would want to give up their health care to live here.

[LiberalElite]

49. One of my doctors is French -

I often want to ask her what she thinks of the system here.

[Aerows]

50. I hope it improves for you, LE

I live in the US, have a job with insurance coverage, but the prescription I require (Zoloft 100mg) Is still $200 a month.

I have two choices - get robbed at the drug store, or get robbed because you literally cannot go off Zoloft easy.

So I'm soaked for 200 a month that I can't quit.

I'm between a rock and a hard place, and I know for a fact that 200/month isn't what it is in a civilized country.

It's not even a street drug, an antibiotic, but I've been on it for so long, I'll be physically, mentally and emotionally messed up without it.

[AngryDem001]

11. Yeah, our drugs are stupidly expensive!

But we have the number 1 military in the world!

USA! USA! USA! USA!

[riverbendviewgal]

12. OHIP is my provincial Health Insurance Plan

I am a senior I pay $100 total per year for my prescription drugs. It is true our provinces negotiate the cost of drugs with the pharmaceutical companies.

I love my health care system. No bills ever.

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. a 2g tube is £5.59 from a major high street chemist, here in the UK.

If you buy online it's as cheap as £2.99, so with the exchange rate, less than ten bucks for five grams. And that's if you don't have a prescription; prescriptions are free on the NHS (at least in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland).

[Jim Beard]

14. I buy Advair at about the same prices as my insurance pays in the US

I buy it from the UK through Canada and can buy the rest of my meds on my Medicare part D without going into the doughnut hole.

[adieu]

21. The MIC:

Military Industrial Complex or the Medical Industrial Complex. Both exploit the fear of death to charge exorbitant amounts. Both must be controlled. The Military one should be disbanded and anyone caught manufacturing items that are primarily designed to be weapons should be tried for treason. The Medical one should be nationalized and funded through taxes. Use the NIH and other national health research centers to lead in creating medical solutions. We know already that for-profit pharmas have no interest in providing solutions. They either look for easy wins (drugs that solve irrelevant cases, such as shaking leg syndrome) or they provide long-term "care" with their drug, basically forcing the user to be on the drug forever.

[erronis]

32. Or, as I've been told the MIPC

At one point before Eisenhower's warning about the corporatism taking over government, he wanted to name it the Military Industrial Political Complex (MIPC) but was warned by aides that this would not go over well with the "P" group.

[vkkv]

22. We are so SCREWED

over by corporations it is sickening.

Oh right, healthy people aren't profitable.

[Aerows]

24. I was rather surprised

when I found out my rabies treatment - a deadly as hell disease that everyone in the world recognizes you DO NOT want in your community - totaled, wait for it,

$19,282.00 because I live in the US. For six shots. After the business in the emergency room that was painful, but not anything past a painful as hell injection in the wound site, it was a series of five additional shots.

Dwell on that.

[hedda_foil]

26. That one prescription probably landed him in the Part D doughnut hole.

It's insane.

[Rex]

27. Thank you Richard Nixon for this completely fucked up Health Insurance racket you created!

Leave it to a crook.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

30. A warm, wet, tea bag works better.

Nobody ever believes it....until they try it.

[peacebird]

37. At first tingle start taking L-lysine & vitamin c a couple tomes a day. Most times that prevents it

[JCMach1]

33. Price controls actually work in medicine...

I saw that in a completely free market otherwise system in the UAE. Most drugs were 1/2 to 1/100th the price of the same meds in the USA.

Americans are ripped off at every level of the medical racket.

[DeSwiss]

35. The pharmaceutical industry is a criminal enterprise.

- All it's employees and directors should be treated as such.

And no bail.

K&R

[bleedinglib]

38. High priced meds ??

I used to buy the expensive stuff for my cold sores until I discovered that a 99 cent bottle of hydrogen peroxide worked even better !!
In my little town of about 4500 we have 5 pharmacies. I pay $5.00 for my meds with my Medicare supplement & the drug companies charges Medicare $120.00 for a prescription that used too cost $15.99 without Insurance !!
This drug plan written by the drugsters & signed into law by bush is a total rip off of the American taxpayer !!

[Liberal Veteran]

51. Generics have gotten ridiculous on some meds. I paid $8 (no insurance) for generic Fioricet....

....and a month later, the same prescription was suddenly $70.

I heard the reason was because they had to reformulate it for less acetaminophen, but going from 325mg of acetaminophen to 300mg hardly seems like a reason for such a massive spike in prices. The butalbital and caffeine part stayed the same, but putting less tylenol in it made the price go up that much? I call bullshit.

[blkmusclmachine]

41. WTF

[Hekate]

42. May I recommend Abreva? It's OTC, effective, and quite affordable. US drug companies....

...are still begging for Uncle Sam to regulate the hell out of them. I wish Uncle Sam would do just that.

[mountain grammy]

45. K & R

[fingrin]

46. Unfortunatly price

Gouging is rampant worldwide.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/67071053/nurofen-faces-packaging-lawsuit

[nationalize the fed]

52. Maybe that's why Obama promised a public insurance option

He didn't campaign on Single Payer but he did promise a most important thing- a check on insurance ripoff

The average insurance CEO makes over a million dollars a month- and customers are served up by law- a law passed by a Democratic Administration- (D) House, (D) Senate and (D) President. It's astounding. And it was a right wing plan to begin with.