Drug cost WOW !!!

[caryc]

My last lab tests showed that my ferritin (iron) level was up again and my doctor put me back on Jadenu, a chelator. This prescription was $795 for 30 tablets. That's $26.50 per tablet. Wow...glad I didn't have to pay for that.

The other one, Procrit, is an injection which I give myself once a week. That one is $2045.55 per injection. I don't pay for that one either.

 

[Cholo]

Good grief! I'm glad it's all paid for. You'd be whittling a lot of wood if it weren't.

 

[gramps]

Why not just donate a pint of blood a month? We used to do that ya know!
gramps

 

[bogus bill]

My take is everything to do with cost in the medical field would make the old mafi hang their heads in shame. With the prescriptions I have for xarelto, at first they were going to charge me something like $700 for a bottle of 30! Then my doctor had some free samples he gave me for nothing. When those ran out they were going to charge me close to $470 a bottle. My lifetime medical had run out from my job. (I am retired). The company added something like $25,000 at the first of the year to my secondary insurance and now it's somewhere around $20 a month. For whatever reason it was like $70 a month for the last two months of 2018. From what I have seen the pharmacy just pulls different figures out their azz and see what floats! Nothing makes any sense with the doctors and hospital. I was in the hospital due to loss of blood for five days just before christmas. The way they do the billing I STILL don't know where I stand! My doctor had me on xarelto and I passed blood. Just before I went to the hospital I googled the problem and found xarelto and the other medicine I was taking for arthritis was a no no together and it ate a hole in my gut. At the hospital another doctor took me off both and told me the same thing that I had just read. Now I just take xarelto and nothing for the arthritis. Has me chair bound at the moment. Today got fitted up for a foot brace. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I never went to a doctor. I have been told they saved my life a number of times but I still wonder.

 

[Galaxiedan]

And right here is the problem with medical care in this country! If insurance wasnt covering the inflated costs for people how long would it take for costs to drop.
Im self employed and self pay for my medical. When I tell them im cash pay its usually cheaper than some copays.

Was on my wifes insurance for a time and my "yearly" checkup was billed to them at over $1200. Insurance paid it.
Next time i was not on her plan and checkup with all blood tests ect was less than $250 cash. Its a scam and a shame.

 

[caryc]

Why not just donate a pint of blood a month? We used to do that ya know!
gramps

They wouldn't take my blood.

 

[caryc]

And right here is the problem with medical care in this country! If insurance wasnt covering the inflated costs for people how long would it take for costs to drop.
Im self employed and self pay for my medical. When I tell them im cash pay its usually cheaper than some copays.

Was on my wifes insurance for a time and my "yearly" checkup was billed to them at over $1200. Insurance paid it.
Next time i was not on her plan and checkup with all blood tests ect was less than $250 cash. Its a scam and a shame.

If insurance wasn't paying for it. What would drop first? The prices or the patients?

 

[tinman]

I have a relative that is on an oral chemo medication. A single months worth of pills (60) is over six thousand dollars.

 

[Merle1948]

I have a relative that is on an oral chemo medication. A single months worth of pills (60) is over six thousand dollars.

my wifes monthly cancer shot is $4,000 - not much for one shot, eh? :shock:

 

[caryc]

I have a relative that is on an oral chemo medication. A single months worth of pills (60) is over six thousand dollars.

my wifes monthly cancer shot is $4,000 - not much for one shot, eh? :shock:

You've got to wonder how much it costs the pharmaceutical companies to make that stuff.

 

[Merle1948]

I have a relative that is on an oral chemo medication. A single months worth of pills (60) is over six thousand dollars.

my wifes monthly cancer shot is $4,000 - not much for one shot, eh? :shock:

You've got to wonder how much it costs the pharmaceutical companies to make that stuff.

yeah, I wonder that pretty much every month... :evil:

 

[blume357]

My question is, who is paying for it?

the best answer is:

I am... since I have not even gone to a doctor in 35 years and from the best I can figure have paid over $200,000 in health insurance...

you are welcome.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

It is a shell game between the drug companies, the insurance companies and the pharmacies, unfortunately the customers (patients) are the ones left holding the bag. The only solution to the problem is to wait till the drug you need is taken off patent and becomes a generic, until then one has to finagle a way to get the brand name drug for cheaper, like using a prescription plan or 'Good Rx' or signing up with the drug company's 'customer help program' to get a discount. Anybody that pays full price for prescriptions is in a real mess.

Same is true with doctors, hospitals and insurance companies.

We have the most expensive healthcare system in the world.

I recently waited until January to fill a prescription so that the $399 would go against my deductible for the year.

 

[ChiefMuzz]

"You've got to wonder how much it costs the pharmaceutical companies to make that stuff."

Alot. Sometimes millions just to get it on the market. It's a lucrative game, for sure. But with the inital manpower, testing, restesting, reformulating, etc. it takes to get something from concept to market - it's expensive. Then they have a ten year window to recoup the costs before the formula becomes open market game for other companies to replicate and produce. Do you wonder why generics are always cheaper? They don't have to do any of the leg work. They simply take the formula, replicate and produce.
The system is really a mess, without a doubt - but you can't point to one single area as the problem. It can take 10 years to get a drug to the market. Go ahead and work on something for 10 years without realizing any profit on it and tell me how much you are going to charge for it when you finally can?

 

[caryc]

"You've got to wonder how much it costs the pharmaceutical companies to make that stuff."

Alot. Sometimes millions just to get it on the market. It's a lucrative game, for sure. But with the inital manpower, testing, restesting, reformulating, etc. it takes to get something from concept to market - it's expensive. Then they have a ten year window to recoup the costs before the formula becomes open market game for other companies to replicate and produce. Do you wonder why generics are always cheaper? They don't have to do any of the leg work. They simply take the formula, replicate and produce.
The system is really a mess, without a doubt - but you can't point to one single area as the problem. It can take 10 years to get a drug to the market. Go ahead and work on something for 10 years without realizing any profit on it and tell me how much you are going to charge for it when you finally can?

I have no problem with them wanting to recoup their investment cost but it would seem that some of them are trying to do it in one month.

 

[caryc]

Oh yeah, thank you Blume !

 

[ChiefMuzz]

"You've got to wonder how much it costs the pharmaceutical companies to make that stuff."

Alot. Sometimes millions just to get it on the market. It's a lucrative game, for sure. But with the inital manpower, testing, restesting, reformulating, etc. it takes to get something from concept to market - it's expensive. Then they have a ten year window to recoup the costs before the formula becomes open market game for other companies to replicate and produce. Do you wonder why generics are always cheaper? They don't have to do any of the leg work. They simply take the formula, replicate and produce.
The system is really a mess, without a doubt - but you can't point to one single area as the problem. It can take 10 years to get a drug to the market. Go ahead and work on something for 10 years without realizing any profit on it and tell me how much you are going to charge for it when you finally can?

I have no problem with them wanting to recoup their investment cost but it would seem that some of them are trying to do it in one month.

Even if we are conservative and say that cancer shot that you get once a month cost 10 million to get in production. So now it's 10 years later and they haven't realized a dollar on their investment yet. If they are realistically looking at a cost reimbursement of $4000 per shot, it would take 2500 units for them to even get into the black with their product. Again, work on something for 10 years without a making money and then tell me what you are going to price it at?

Now the fun part. Though argued, studies have found the actual cost to bring a cancer drug to market at about 2.7 billion dollars. Now there is alot of argument to that, but what is sure is that we aren't talking about 10 million dollars. We are talking mulitiples of that. So a company needs to spend near a billion dollars to produce and have the rights to a medicine for 10 years once it hits the market. They also need to produce more drugs to stay in business because they will not own the intellectual property for the drug more than 10 years. Maybe the answer is to stop allowing generics. That would ease the need for rapid recoup of a products cost and make the market more competitive for drug development vs the wait and take approach we have now.

 

[Paul B]

"Alot. Sometimes millions just to get it on the market. It's a lucrative game, for sure. But with the inital manpower, testing, restesting, reformulating, etc. it takes to get something from concept to market - it's expensive. Then they have a ten year window to recoup the costs before the formula becomes open market game for other companies to replicate and produce."

Here in the US they can renew the patent on a drug IIRC three times. That's what, 30 years? The can only renew twice in countries outside the USA. That's why you can buy the same (generic) drugs from Canada and Mexico at a lower price.
Paul B.

 

[ChiefMuzz]

"Alot. Sometimes millions just to get it on the market. It's a lucrative game, for sure. But with the inital manpower, testing, restesting, reformulating, etc. it takes to get something from concept to market - it's expensive. Then they have a ten year window to recoup the costs before the formula becomes open market game for other companies to replicate and produce."

Here in the US they can renew the patent on a drug IIRC three times. That's what, 30 years? The can only renew twice in countries outside the USA. That's why you can buy the same (generic) drugs from Canada and Mexico at a lower price.
Paul B.

The patent on a drug runs out 20 years after the date of submission of the patent. There is no renewal process outside of a patent renewal granted by an Act of Congress - which almost never happens. Generally it's 10 years after it comes to market, with the 10 year lead time from R&D to getting it to market.
You can buy the drug at a different price in Canada and Mexico because they have completely different health care systems, standards, approval, etc.

 

[Pat-inCO]

(Thanking my lucky stars) Mine are the other end. I just got a refill on my
BP med's and it costs me six point sixty-six cents per day. :wink:

Like I say, thanking my lucky stars!

I'm getting even with my Ex wife. She takes FOUR different ones per day
to keep her BP even remotely close to where it should be. :shock:

 

[Bull Barrel]

I work with a guy who takes his wife to the doc for an injection every Wednesday.
Each one is $5k. The first he covers his deductible and out of pocket. After that they are covered fully.

 

[redhawker]

Wow! I thought $795 you quoted was bad and for giggles, I thought I'd search it in goodrx.com. (I recently got a non-covered prescription that used to cost me $150 for $17 and some change through them). Their lowest price for a 30 tablet, lowest dose (90 mg) Jadenu prescription...$1,173.35!! They usually give the average cash price for this but don't on this one for some reason. If you needed the highest dose (360 mg) twice a day it would be $9,296.28!! YIKES!! Also, they say the average cash price for that one is $16,736.00.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Glad I go to the VA for my medical care and get my prescriptions from them too !!

 

[mistermills357]

I am a diabetic and every bottle of insulin costs $200-$300, and I use it a lot faster now, than I did last year. So, every time that I order Lantus, I get 4 bottles of it; which would cost $800-$1,200 at Walgreens. The VA provides it, and that is a pretty expensive burden, even if it is the VA.

 

[fiasconva]

If you members haven't looked into Goodrx.com you should. It's also an app you can download to your smart phone. It allows you to basically shop around for Rx prices online and shows you who has the best prices. It's great for those that don't have health insurance also.

 

[jeffmb]

And right here is the problem with medical care in this country! If insurance wasnt covering the inflated costs for people how long would it take for costs to drop.
Im self employed and self pay for my medical. When I tell them im cash pay its usually cheaper than some copays.

Was on my wifes insurance for a time and my "yearly" checkup was billed to them at over $1200. Insurance paid it.
Next time i was not on her plan and checkup with all blood tests ect was less than $250 cash. Its a scam and a shame.

I agree 100%. The consumer would determine what prices the drug makers could charge. If the drug is too high for average people to buy it, the company makes no sales. No sales = out of business. Insurance has skewed virtually every medical cost out there.