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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexico Investigates Sale of Fake Drugs |
| 2004-08-11 |
| "Fake drugs?" This could really ruin Mexico's reputation as America's premier drug supplier. Tue, Aug 10, 2004 By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Mexican authorities are investigating the sale of fake or substandard medicine in a border town so popular among Americans seeking cheap medications that it has more pharmacies than streets. More at link |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #7 For Half - when you run out of those shrooms... |
| Posted by: .com 2004-08-11 18:42 |
| #6 The e-mail quoted in #2 ignores some obvious facts, such as: 1. development costs (non-generic), 2. packaging, and 3. distribution costs. A good analogy for the folly of ignoring development costs would be to complain that a movie on DVD costs $20 when it only costs 10 cents to stamp the CD. A good analogy for the folly of ignoring packaging and distribution costs is to argue that a $5 box of screws is marked up 100 000% because the cost of the metal is only half a penny. Competition is all that is needed. Now I am still not sure if the beef is with the generic drug manu, or the pharmacist. In either case, if its such ripoff, buy a pharmacy or invest in generic drug manufacturing stocks. |
| Posted by: Anonymous5752 2004-08-11 18:38 |
| #5 #2 all I have to say is that if the feds want to tell the pharma industry how much to sell meds then that will be the end of pharmacautical innovation in this country. On top of that there will be many people out of jobs, from the research chemists to the general contractors that would be used to build more facilities for new meds. |
| Posted by: Chemist 2004-08-11 15:11 |
| #4 Here is help you need cure for what ailes ya good wether down in mushroom country right now |
| Posted by: Half 2004-08-11 12:26 |
| #3 Mexico Investigates Sale of Fake Drugs I have other suggestions: how about also investigating the smuggling of illicit drugs across the border and busting the rings that are doing this? How about also investigating and busting the rings that are smuggling people across the border? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-08-11 10:20 |
| #2 Now ain't this a coincedence.Remember that discusion we had a couple of weeks ago concerning pharmecutical companies and thier refusal to reasearch cures for some diseases.Check out this e-mail I recieved 2 days ago:The Real Cost of Prescriptions Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 08:16:33 -0500 The women that signed below are Budget Analysts out of federal Washington, D.C. offices. Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? .... We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. ... a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients made in other countries. .... we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold in America. The chart below speaks for itself. Celebrex 100 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60 Percent markup: 21,712% Claritin 10 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71 Percent markup: 30,306% Keflex 250 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $157.39 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.88 Percent markup: 8,372% Lipitor 20 m g Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37 Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80 Percent markup: 4,696% Norvasec 10 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14 Percent markup: 134,493% Paxil 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60 Percent markup: 2,898% Prevacid 30 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $44.77 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.01 Percent markup: 34,136% Prilosec 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $360.97 Cost of general active ingredients $0.52 Percent markup: 69,417% Prozac 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11 Percent markup: 224,973% Tenormin 50 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $104.47 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.13 Percent markup: 80,362% Vasotec 10 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $102.37 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.20 Percent markup: 51,185% Xanax 1 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024 Percent markup: 569,958% Zestril 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) $89.89 Cost of general active ingredients $3.20 Percent markup: 2,809% Zithromax 600 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19 Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78 Percent markup: 7,892% Zocor 40 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $350.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $8.63 Percent markup: 4,059% Zoloft 50 mg Consumer price: $206.87 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75 Percent markup: 11,821% Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone I knew should know about this. Please read the following and pass it on. It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreens on every corner. On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo.....three thousand percent! So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10! At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs. I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was appalled. Sharon L. Davis Budget Analyst U.S. Department of Commerce Room 6839 Office Ph: 202-482-4458 Office Fax: 202-482-5480 Email Address: sdavis@docgov Do you understand the term"price gouging"? I have editted the e-mail,if you want the complete text e-mail and I will forward it to you. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-08-11 09:46 |
| #1 Oh medicine. I thought they were talking about baggies of oregano. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-08-11 08:51 |
