medications/take it too:

[gunoil]

Kroger, walmart, costco is where you need to get your meds/pills. Huge scam l watched on TV the morn on local CBS about copay rip off. Pills are penny's. Really.

[Bohica793]

Pills are pennies to product but require BILLIONS to develop (thanks mostly to the wonderful regulations of the FDA).

[RED333]

Meds are a scam on all sides.
Company's pay big dollars to get them on the market, Docs get paid to tell us to take them.
We pay big to take them, do you homework, there are other things you can do to make your self healthy.
My good friend was give a script for high BP and bad cholesterol, **** made him feel very bad.
Well he did the homework, changed his diet, got off the meds, Doc is upset.
His BP is at norm, cholesterol is in check.
Now there are meds that do help, do your homework.

[waksupi]

Meds are a scam on all sides.
Company's pay big dollars to get them on the market, Docs get paid to tell us to take them.
We pay big to take them, do you homework, there are other things you can do to make your self healthy.
My good friend was give a script for high BP and bad cholesterol, **** made him feel very bad.
Well he did the homework, changed his diet, got off the meds, Doc is upset.
His BP is at norm, cholesterol is in check.
Now there are meds that do help, do your homework.

I took all white flour and sugar out of my diet, blood pressure has gone down, arthritis is much better, and I've lost thirty pounds. Without a pill!

[Wise Owl]

Lets not forget the GM Corn syrup,
it's in just about everything.
Might take a look at how many things add Polyethylene-glycol to foods and drinks.
Might as well suck out your cars cooling system.

Drug companies ?, CDC, FDA, ( add your own ) they all use the same bathroom stall.
+ how how many of our drugs are made out of country ?

Sure they help some, but can we say a tad over prescribed.

[williamwaco]

Don't remember the name of this drug but in the '60s they were giving it to sheep as a preventative for some sheep disease. It cost $7.00 per hundred at the drug store Vet counter. (Put that in perspective, 7.00 was 25 to 30 fast food hamburgers ).

Somebody discovered it was a good cancer treatment for humans and re-bottled it. Same drug, same dose and priced it at $7.00 per pill at the same drug store Rx counter. - Still available on the Vet counter for $7.00 per hundred.

[bubba.50]

years ago I was diagnosed with high blood pressure & gout and given prescriptions for both that made me feel like absolute ****. I quit livin' on beer, beer-joint pizzas & hot dogs & salt on everything, started feelin' better, quit the meds & and have had no problems with either since.

[jcwit]

Right on, all the Drs. and all those in the drug industry are to harm us and their own families.

[facetious]

There is a old saying that food is medicine. Some of it is good for you some isn't.

There have been a lot of experiments where thy put people different diets to see what happens and found that a lot of diseases can be reversed just by changing the way people eat.

[oldlincoln]

Let's not forget the tort lawyers (polite for ambulance chaser) they form one leg of a triangle composed of doctors, lawyers, and insurance companies that treat, sue and indemnify, all making a profit. Guess who pays?

[crowbuster]

From what I've seen. They give you a pill, then give another pill to undo the side effects of the first pill. Which the side effects are worse than the original symptoms. I'll pass on that action

[jcwit]

How many would feel this way if the Dr. Came to your bedside and informed you that you had a 25% chance of living another week unless you took "whatever" meds????????

I had this happen, 15 years ago, Dr, saved my life!

I like modern medicine.

[btroj]

Yep, it is all a conspiracy.

I hope none none of you ever need any major medical procedure, those are all part of the same vast conspiracy.

[MaryB]

Coumadin is all that keeps my left leg from turning into a giant clot, and clot buster drugs saved my life.

[dakotashooter2]

Pills are pennies to product but require BILLIONS to develop (thanks mostly to the wonderful regulations of the FDA).

Which is often at least partially paid for with grant money from the federal coffers and fund raisers which we donate money to.

Seems like we pay on both ends.


I get many of my dog meds at the local Pharmacy. Often the same drugs as used on humans only in lower dosages. Generally averages $15-$20 for a 3-4 week supply. Even accounting for the lower dosage they are often 60-70% lower than the human equivalent. My mother and sister work at a drugstore so I get a family discount. I'll just say that discount is considerable.........


In my state box stores cannot run a pharmacy, it has to be locally owned. A law that would change that and allow them to have pharmacies was just shot down with a 76% against. Walmart spent a couple million campaigning for it.

I thought I read something about having to be a member of their club to get the $1 prescriptions at Walmart.

Every day there is a new lawsuit advertized on TV about a modern drug that caused problems. It really makes you wonder what you dare take.

I have already made up my mind that I will not take more than 2 drugs at any given time unless it is for a very short period of time.

[smokeywolf]

I've read lately of quite a few folks paying $12,000 to $20,000 per year for health insurance. I don't think folks are totally convinced that pharmaceuticals are a scam; overpriced beyond what any normal intelligent individual could perceive as ethical. But, most (including me) would not want to try and survive in a world without them.

Do the pharmaceutical companies overcharge? Pfizer managed to pay their CEO nearly $19,000,000.00 last year.

smokeywolf

[Duckiller]

In 2011 my Dr offered me heart attacks, strokes and/or long term permanent comas or I could check into a hospital and get chemo-therapy. I choose the chemo and have never regretted it. Blood pressure is normal and after two minor heart attacks,2010 and 2014, my cardiologist says my cancer will get me and my hemotoligist says she won't let it . Next year my wife will get both hips replaced and hopefully will be able to walk again. Pick on it all you want to but modern medicine and drugs are keeping me and my wife alive leading lives worth living.

[GaryN]

I have heard that major surgery gives you a whole new outlook on narcotics. I have never had it so I have no experience. I would not like to go back in time and live without antibiotics, flexeril, or even NSAID's. Be good to your pharmacist. He can help you a bunch.

[MtGun44]

#2 nails it.

The problem is that the testing required to get it legalized costs something like
$500 million. Amazingly, the companies that pay the $500 million would like
to recoup that money when they start selling the drugs, evil capitalists that they
are.

So - if the actual cost is $5 for 30 days worth, you pay $5 PLUS . . . . . .

YOUR SHARE OF THE $500 MILLION DOLLARS that the GOVERNMENT
says they have to pay, because the LAWYERS will sue them for $500 Billion
if anybody gets sick using the drug.

Yep, a total ripoff. I pay $100 a month for a TINY bottle of some chemical
that makes me not go blind. Probably works out to about $100,000 a gallon.

What a ripoff . . . . . . NOT!! Turns out, I am pretty happy not to go blind, and
$100 a month seems like a bargain - considering that if I had lived 50 yrs ago, I
would just go blind.

Bill

[MaryB]

I have heard people claim narcotics users do it to get high. I get no effects like that at all, just some relief from pain and I take oxycontin and percocet. Doesn't even give total pain relief but it lets me function somewhat


I have heard that major surgery gives you a whole new outlook on narcotics. I have never had it so I have no experience. I would not like to go back in time and live without antibiotics, flexeril, or even NSAID's. Be good to your pharmacist. He can help you a bunch.

[Mike in TX]

Mary most people have a low tolerance to narcotics and that is when it works. If the pain is REAL the chances of becoming addicted is very very small. Those with a high tolerance and do not have sufficient pain do get high. We see them every day in the hospital asking for narcotics on a time schedule and we have to go with their pain scale. Docs are smarting up and using non narcotics for those people.

[Thin Man]

The high price of meds gives rise to the opportunity for counterfeiting by non-medical companies just for the profits. A few years ago a friend was taking anti-rejection medications following a kidney transplant. She got to her doctor quickly when the symptoms of rejection began and he found very low and/or absent levels of medication in her blood and urine tests. She had brought all her meds (in their pharmacy issued bottles) with her to the doctor's office. Everything about the bottles and their contents looked legit from the lables on the bottles to the markings, size, shape and color of the contents- until the contents were lab tested. It turned out the pills/tablets she was taking for anti-rejection were little more than paint which had been crushed and used to form the tablets. The doctor made a call to her pharmacy. The pharmacy stated they had acquired that supply from one of their routine vendors. That vendor stated they had bought that supply from a distributor who advertised lower prices due to volume purchase. Further inquiry determined the original source was China! The patient got corrective treatments and saved her transplanted kidney. The pharmacy dropped their vendor. She and I still chat about that scare when we see each other.

Thin Man

[popper]

Costco pharm doesn't require a membership. Generally the actual med is low cost, carrier, packaging & distribution is major cost, for the pill. Clinical trials, production equip is NOT low cost. Try to find a replacement for coumadin/warfrin (rat poison) if possible. Yes the pharms do charge a lot for patent meds and pay huge fees to keep them patented. Most distributors/sellers don't do QC on the meds. FDA trys to but is spread pretty thin. China & India are major manufacturers (importing into Canada - less inspection), big pharms have moved from Puerto Rico. Most are coded to origin, many state it.

[smokeywolf]

Eight or ten years ago, I read that the reason meds are so much cheaper in Canada is because the Canadian gov't refuses to pay the additional costs that the pharma companies cite as development costs. So, the pharmaceutical companies inflate their prices to the U.S. and European nations to make that money back. Not sure how accurate this info was as I can't remember the source.

Also remember that when you pay that additional money to cover the development costs of the prescription you're taking, the pharmaceutical companies are including into the price of your prescription the development costs of the 10 other drugs it came up with that never made it to market.
Not dissing the drug companies for making a profit but, many of those companies are paying their top management anywhere from $1,000 to as much as $8,000 per hour.

smokeywolf

[jcwit]

But then you don't get top management for $10.00 buck an hour.

But $1,000 to $8,000 is a little much.

[dakotashooter2]

But then you don't get top mis-management for $10.00 buck an hour.

But $1,000 to $8,000 is a little much.


I fixed it for you...........

[jcwit]

I fixed it for you...........

Nope, I'll stick to how I wrote it and ment it.

Ten dollar an hour folks seldom make it into management or start a successful company. Furthermore successful companies are seldom if ever ran by those who mismanage them.

[AggiePharmD]

Well since I haven't seen any of those members I know to be pharmacists reply, I'll play. I happen to be a legal drug dealer in a Retail Pharmacy in TX. I won't bore you with the details but I will tell you the following:

1. Branded drugs cost a good bit of money to research and produce and not all of them can be blockbusters like Lipitor and ******. Risk and reward come into play with "Big Pharma."

2. After a branded drug goes generic, there is a 6 month window when it costs as much for a pharmacy to aquire the new generic b/c of exclusivity. Only one manufacturer and it is usually a subsidiary of the brand company.

3. In the world of insurances you have these companies called Pharmacy Benefits Managers (PBMs) that "manage" a company's pharmacy benefit (aka IBM, Dell, etc. When I say manage I mean manipulate in both their favor, PBM making BILLIONS and reducing their client's costs by directly screwing with those formulas used to calculate payments to the pharmacies.

4. Reimbursement from these PBMs averages 6-12% above only the cost of the medication and does not take into account overhead, etc. It may sound like a bunch of profit but do the math on a quantity of 30 of those penny a "pill" meds?

5. Over the past year I've seen generic drug acquisition prices go up as much as 4000% (yep no joke) overnight for no reason at all. Just because a manufacturer got tired of selling it so cheap so it can be sold for $4 on the "Wal-Marts" list. You really think Wally World is cheaper? How much extra **** do you buy while waiting 3 hours for your medication?

6. You're scratching your head at this point trying to figure out why you don't read any of this in the newspapers. It is called transparency and there is none where PBM practices are concerned making it difficult for pharmacy companies to explain things.

7. If you really want service with a smile and feel like you are getting something for your money? Find an independent or small chain pharmacy in you area and fill a script there. Speaking from experience as one of these Pharmacists, I GUARANTEE you will come away having just received the best a pharmacist has to offer you for your money.

[Multigunner]

Canada's generic drug industry has the Canadian courts in their pocket.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canada-features-prominently-on-u-s-drug-patents-naughty-list-1.1799677

They simply refuse to honor patent protections on drugs developed by U S drug companies.

Canada is the worst offender of any of the more civilized nations when it comes to pirating the intellectual properties of others.

[btroj]

Aggie has it right, except the small chain/independant part. Many large chain RPs give great service too.

Like anything in this country we can either have capitalism or we can have government price controls, you decide.

A couple people on here mentioned lifestyle and dietary changes. That is the single best way to stay healthy. Take care of your body and it will take better care of you. Nothing worse than listening to an overweight chain smoker complain about feeling bad.

[jcwit]

I don't know, I gained weight after I quit smoking.

[AggiePharmD]

Aggie has it right, except the small chain/independant part. Many large chain RPs give great service too.

Like anything in this country we can either have capitalism or we can have government price controls, you decide.

A couple people on here mentioned lifestyle and dietary changes. That is the single best way to stay healthy. Take care of your body and it will take better care of you. Nothing worse than listening to an overweight chain smoker complain about feeling bad.

Guess I'm partial to the little guy, but I know great pharmacists at large chains, too. They also have time constraints we smaller scale guys/gals don't.

Dietary and exercise modification is the prime way to go, but we all know the chances are slim anyone will actually follow through. Meds are easier but not necessarily better.

I am all about less government and more capitalism BUT we as a profession need MAC legislation from Congress if we expect to take our profession back and clear the profits we deserve.

[fatelk]

A couple people on here mentioned lifestyle and dietary changes. That is the single best way to stay healthy. Take care of your body and it will take better care of you.
Absolutely agree. I remember some politician a few years ago saying that a big part of the fix to the health care system problem would be for folks to take some personal accountability for their health: eat better, exercise, etc.. It's awful hard to make changes like that, especially if you've lived a certain way for decades. A friend told me years ago about his cholesterol meds. He said he told the doc not to talk to him about food and exercise, he wasn't interested. All he wanted was a prescription. Drugs would fix it without effort on his part. :(

On the other hand, my young son needs a medication that costs over $20,000 per year. Without it he could be crippled. Had he been born even a decade sooner he could be crippled. I'm glad it's available. The bad part of it is that our insurance is changing next year. Before it was a copay every month, now we will pay the first $7k per year. That's going to hurt.

[btroj]

Guess I'm partial to the little guy, but I know great pharmacists at large chains, too. They also have time constraints we smaller scale guys/gals don't.

Dietary and exercise modification is the prime way to go, but we all know the chances are slim anyone will actually follow through. Meds are easier but not necessarily better.

I am all about less government and more capitalism BUT we as a profession need MAC legislation from Congress if we expect to take our profession back and clear the profits we deserve.

As a guy at a big chain I appreciate the fact you understand we work in different parts of the same world.

The profession and medicine have changed a bunch sa nce I graduated in 91. I have 15 plus years before I can retire and who knows what the job will be by then. Hopefully it will be better but with the way reimbursement is going I'm not so sure.

[MaryB]

I have researched the alternatives, coumadin is safest because a vitamin K pill counteracts it. Or eating a bunch of cabbage, broccoli etc. The others have a rather large death toll building up from nasty side effects too.


Costco pharm doesn't require a membership. Generally the actual med is low cost, carrier, packaging & distribution is major cost, for the pill. Clinical trials, production equip is NOT low cost. Try to find a replacement for coumadin/warfrin (rat poison) if possible. Yes the pharms do charge a lot for patent meds and pay huge fees to keep them patented. Most distributors/sellers don't do QC on the meds. FDA trys to but is spread pretty thin. China & India are major manufacturers (importing into Canada - less inspection), big pharms have moved from Puerto Rico. Most are coded to origin, many state it.