Does Tablet, mean one, single pill? ( Just making sure )
And they sell Albendazole for $225 Per tablet in US?
And quote
>our cost to make and distribute the drug is approximately $13.00 per tablet
It cost $13 to make one Tablet, or one pill?
And this is lowcost?
Anyone from Europe or UK living in US could sort of explain a little bit here. I know US medication are expensive, but this is... something else. I cant comprehend what I am reading here.
I'm reminded of the time I was in the EU, in an area where tourism isn't common. Due to a lack of planning on multiple levels, I had to stay an extra two weeks. I went to get a refill for a prescription I need.
The pharmacist was clearly unconformable with the discussion that needed to happen. They informed me there would be a charge for the medicine. After some back and forth because neither of us was fluent in the other's language, it turned out they were asking me to pay the cost of the drug, an amount of money less than my normal copay, and something like 5% of what my insurance claimed the drug normally cost.
The pharmacist was most confused why I was happy to pay. I don't think they believed me when I tried to explain how much it normally cost me.
The pharmacist told me that they were having a hard time confirming my insurance. After a ridiculously long delay, I asked how much the drug was to pay for out of pocket... It was $12. My copay was $10 anyway. So both the pharmacist and I wasted a lot of time and hassle trying to save me $2.
I think they don't want to make judgements about your ability to play.
It's one reason why there's prescription-strength ibuprofen. I can personally just go buy OTC ibuprofen and take the required dosage, but some people can't afford that, so they get the prescription strength where their out-of-pocket cost is $0.
can't afford it? in the UK ibuprofen and paracetamol are like, 20p for a pack of 16!
though I do miss the giant packs you get in the US, all pills come in small blister packs with purchase limits in all shops, to make overdosing more difficult
Had a similar situation in India. I'd fallen ill and my partner went off to find medication. Spoke with a doctor/pharmacist who gave her an assortment of packets of tablets, rehydrating sachets and so on.
~This medicine is for sale here in the Netherlands, over the counter, for $3.3 dollars. No that period is not a mistake.~
~That's for a pack of 6 tablets. How the heck do they end up at $13 cost?~
Edit: Google autocorrected to a similar drug. This specific drug is actually $4.50 per tablet here and prescription only. That's still a massive difference.
Relevant sidenote: it's fully covered as well so I wouldn't even get a bill.
>This specific drug is actually $4.50 per tablet here and prescription only.
Yes. It is like someone told you a canCoca ColaCoke in US is $220, and their latest innovation is to give you the same for $20.
All while you are picking one up at a convenience Store in EU for $1 and you can get a pack of 8 in a large supermarket for $3.
As you walk out of the convenience Store while drinking your coke, you are left wondering what the hell is going on with people and the world across the pond.
And that medicine is likely subsidized. If this company is truly transparent, then we can see that it cost more than $3.30 to make it. So you are paying more, just in taxes.
Yes, a tablet is a single pill. Sometimes you'll split the pill, so a tablet might be 2 doses. But 1 pill.
Note that retail pricing is an unreliable indication of actual cost to consumers. They jack it up so that they various plans can claim huge discount policies. Some of these plans are free, so there's very few people who are paying this "retail" price.
The pill makers get paid by the consumers and, in most cases, by the plan-owners. And such agreements are made exceedingly complicated. IMO, only to make them more opaque and more difficult to regulate.
Unfortunately, such a system is highly regressive as the richest tend to have the best plans, the poorest tend to have a meager plan, and the transient have no plan other than showing up at a hospital.
* hospitals run as non profits, so they dont pay federal taxes
* they still pay local taxes, so they need to generate a large loss to offset these taxes
* insurance companies negotiate huge "discounts" on list prices, and then go back to their customers (large corporations) and boast about these discounts, meanwhile the hospital gets its tax writeoff
This entire system is rigged to also grow the number of hospitals/ the overall size of healthcare in america.
Pharma companies play this game too, and anyone who doesnt have insurance can quietly get a "coupon" from them to bring down the cash price to the same as insurance.
No politician will close hospitals, so at this stage any move to "single payer" will just move the boasting role to the government.
Yes, medical care is absolutely insane here. Like jaw dropping on a nearly daily basis insane. Lots of Americans just don't realise how much they're being screwed by the system that has been built, and they buy in the narrative they constantly get told about it being the best health care system in the world, and that coming with a cost.
Note: few people will pay that $225. Most of that gets handled by your health insurance, who will often also have bulk purchasing deals with medical companies that helps drive down the cost to them. You do have a co-pay to cover, plus a little extra, so it's still more expensive than you'd pay in the UK for medicine.
Prices can go as low as $300 for two tablets, if you have a GoodRx annual subscription. I think the $13 is actually a wholesale substitution price, as there are lower prices available for this drug for the same dosage through veterinary channels.
GoodRX has the cheapest at $140 for a pack of 4 200mg. $35 a pill, not the $225 that Cuban's website says.
Cuban's actually playing pretty fast and loose with numbers here. He says $15 wholesale for $20 retail. But usually retail is going to have higher markups than that. Especially for stuff that has to be verified by a pharmacist. His $15 probably isn't much if any discount off the existing wholesale price.
I'm inclined to trust Wikipedia more than Cuban. They had a wikiwar sometime back about the inclusion of drug prices (the anti-price faction won), but older article versions still list the sticker price in the developing world at USD 0.01 to 0.06. That's credible, considering what a simple molecule the active principle is.
Just guessing, I suspect that the regulatory environment in the US adds cost. It costs more to buy or lease the space here, and it costs more here to hire people. It all adds up.
Albendazole is a large-volume generic, the manufacturer will sit somewhere in India or China. The stuff already has FDA registration since you can buy it in the US (although at wildly inflated prices).
Not really defending anything here. Just saying that producing drugs in the US costs more than other places. Unless they are buying tablets from a manufacturer that are already FDA approved, they still have to prove the similarity of their generic product to the FDA - the product has to provably be what it is labeled to be.
"We will let everyone know what it costs to manufacture, distribute, and market our drugs to pharmacies. We add a flat 15% margin to get our wholesale prices. This makes sure we remain viable and profitable. There are no hidden costs, no middlemen, no rebates only available to insurance companies. Everybody gets the same low price for every drug we make."
I guess we'll get to see where the price comes from.
Does Tablet, mean one, single pill? ( Just making sure )
And they sell Albendazole for $225 Per tablet in US?
And quote
>our cost to make and distribute the drug is approximately $13.00 per tablet
It cost $13 to make one Tablet, or one pill?
And this is low cost?
Anyone from Europe or UK living in US could sort of explain a little bit here. I know US medication are expensive, but this is... something else. I cant comprehend what I am reading here.