Soaring Ointment Prices Are a Dermatologic Mystery

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/10/business/prescription-skin-creams-jump-in-price.html?ref=health

They are the staples of most dermatology practices: generic creams and ointments that treat everything from skin rashes to athlete’s foot to scabies. Many doctors prescribe the drugs without a second thought. But increasingly, some dermatologists say, patients are complaining about a recent, mysterious and rapid rise in price.

Take betamethasone dipropionate, a cream used to relieve itchy skin. In 2008, a tube cost $18.17. The medicine now costs $71.28, according to Red Book, which tracks wholesale drug prices. Permethrin cream, which kills scabies mites, cost $29.25 in 2008 but has jumped to $71.08 today.

The hefty price increases have stumped doctors and their patients. “It seems to me that something is going on, but I don’t have quantitative details,” said Dr. Steven R. Feldman, a professor of dermatology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. “I wouldn’t have thought that these old-timey, generic drugs would be very costly.”

The added revenue from the higher prices has improved the bottom lines of the handful of companies that make such drugs, and has even figured into a contested buyout of one of the companies by an India-based drug maker, Sun Pharmaceuticals.

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1. Same thing is happening at the veterinarian.

My vet noticed that the drugs that went up in price (400% over two years in my case), are generally generic drugs that are old and given to your dog for life. The manufacturers figure there is little chance dog owners are going to balk at the price increases because the drugs are necessary for quality of life. We are locked in no matter what they charge.

I consider it an extortion fee.

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2. i guess that's not surprising. gouging is gouging.

works for our pets too.