Wednesday, May 28, 2008

High Price of Gas???

You haven't seen anything yet! Interesting contribution from a government employee in the Dept. of Commerce.

Shop your prescriptions and keep the pressure on Big Pharma to reduce unnecessary expenses!!

For those who has prescribed medication and are not aware, Costco is sooooo much cheaper. Read below for additional information.



This is worth reading.
Be sure to read to the end. You will be amazed.
This is worth reading.


Let's hear it for Costco! (This is just mind-boggling!)

Make sure you re ad all the way past the list of the drugs. The woman that signed below is a Budget Analyst out of federal
Washington, DC offices.

Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot, since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of Life Extension a significant percentage of drugs sold in the
United States contain active ingredients made in other countries. In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular dr ugs sold in America .

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 mg
Consumer Price (1 00 tablets): $272.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80
Percent markup: 4,696%



Norvasc:
10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29
Cost of general act ive 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
P ercent markup: 34,136%



Prilosec
: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $360.97
Cost of general active ingre dients $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 should know about this.
It pays to shop around! This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreen's on every corner. On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative report er for Channel 7 News in
Detroit , did a story on generic drug prices gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. 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 t ell 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. Just to give you one example from my own experience I had to use t he drug Compazine which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients.


I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08.

I would like to mention, that although Costco is a 'membership' type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will l et you in.

I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and passing it into your own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail address.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/generic.aspSnopes.comconfirms this.

\

Monday, May 12, 2008

Big Pharma and Pill Pushers Comments Continue to Stream In

The book has picked up a little following and is gaining a fan club of sorts. Word of mouth is spreading and this comment comes from a fan's sister:

Anne -- I finished Ces' book over a week ago and keep meaning to tell you about it. I thought it was really good. I read a lot of books in that genre (Nance, Demille). I thought it was fast paced and interesting. I would have liked it to be a little longer and developed some of the other characters more. I would have liked more on the reunion of the two main characters when they testified before Congress. I looked for it on Amazon.com -- thought I'd get a copy for my friend who's a health care reporter with USA today -- but couldn't find it.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

From A Houston Pill Pusher

After reading the book we have another interesting commentary on Pill Pushers: A Big Pharma Battle For Market Share!

Life in the "Push" Lane
Take a front seat ride into a "day in the life" of America's pharmaceutical sales industry as this fast-paced thriller speeds you right into the front page headlines of today's major newspapers. Although admittedly a work of fiction, the shades of grey are taken to the limit as a corporate giant suffers the fallout of putting profits before people. You will be mesmerized as the lines between fact and fiction become all too blurry in this incredible work that is hard to put down as soon as you open it up.

Monday, April 28, 2008

PILL PUSHER BOOKSTORE ANNOUNCEMENT!

We've officially been accepted into our FIRST bookstore!! For our friends in and around the N.O., please stop in and visit Britton Trice and the good people at The Garden District Book Shop. We're still working on a book signing there too. Please forward this e-mail to anyone and everyone you know in the N.O. area that might have some interest in a GREAT story! We'd love to cause a stampede for the book! Thanks for your support!

http://www.gardendistrictbookshop.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

For more info on the book, check it out on the web at: www.PillPushersTheBook.com Part of the story takes place in N.O. with scenes on campus at LSU too!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Marketing vs Research

I think most of you are aware of this info posted on Mercola.com ... I'm really concerned with the push on marketing vs research though! Check it out!!



Shocking Facts About the Pharmaceutical Industry

dangerous drugs, drug companies, pharmaceutical, big pharma, drugsBig drug companies have been accused of putting profits above patients, spinning false PR campaigns and more. Here are some of the most shocking facts about the pharmaceutical industry.

The price of drugs is increasing faster than anything else a patient pays for: The prices of the most heavily prescribed drugs are routinely jacked up, sometimes several times a year. Some medications have a mark-up of 1,000 percent over the cost of their ingredients.

Your doctor may have an ulterior motive behind your prescription: Drug reps often give gifts to convince doctors to prescribe the medications that they represent. These drug reps usually have no medical or science education.

Pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing than research: Almost twice as much!

Guilty of Medicare fraud: Pharmaceutical companies are being tried in federal courts as a result of their exploitation of Medicare. AstraZeneca had to pay more than $340 million in penalties for coaching doctors to cheat Medicare.

The combined wealth of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies outweigh GNP of sub-Saharan Africa: In fact, the combined worth of the world’s top five drug companies is twice the combined GNP of that entire region.

Americans pay more for prescription meds than anyone else in the world: $200 billion in 2002 alone.

"New" Drugs aren't really new: Two-thirds of “new” prescription drugs are identical to existing drugs or modified versions of them.

Drug companies are taking advantage of underdeveloped countries to perform clinical trials: In developing countries, government oversight is more lax.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Message From Europe

Pill Pushers has fans across the pond!

Laura and I met Peter and Dee in Italy last year. They ordered Pill Pushers and are now weighing in with their comments!

Just a quick email to let you know that both Peter and I have read your book and thought it was great. We both thoroughly enjoyed it and it gave us an insight into a world that neither of us knew anything about. Many thanks again for sending it to us.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

ANOTHER FORMER PILL PUSHER!!!

This is a column from a good website! Check it out!

Former Drug Sales Rep Tells All

Shahram Ahari, who spent two years selling Prozac and Zypraxa for Eli Lily, told a Senate Aging Committee that his job involved "rewarding physicians with gifts and attention for their allegiance to your product and company despite what may be ethically appropriate."

Ahari claims that drug companies often hire former cheerleaders and ex-models, as well as former athletes and members of the military, even if they have no background in science.

During their five-week training class, Ahari says he was taught sales tactics such as:

  • How to exceed spending limits for important clients
  • How to be generous with free samples to leverage sales
  • How to use friendships and personal gifts to foster a "quid pro quo" relationship
  • How to exploit sexual tension

Ahari claims that he's even heard stories about sales reps helping to pay the cost of a doctor's swimming pool, or taking a doctor to a nightclub where a hostess was paid to keep him company.

For this work, sales reps often earned more than researchers. On top of a base salary of $50,000 for starting reps, Ahari says, "there were four quarterly bonuses, an annual bonus, stock options, a car, 401K, great health benefits, and a $60,000 expense account."