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If anyone else has any info on this topic or have used Costo's mprescription drugs please reply.

Derrick Henry

www.blackbusinessunited.org

Let's hear it for Costco!

Make sure you read all the way past the list of the drugs. The woman that
signed below is a Government Budget Analyst  in Washington , DC .

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
drugs sold in  America .

Celebrex: 100 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60
Percent markup: 21,712%
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Claritin: 10 mg
Consumer Price (100 table ts): $215.17
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71
Percent markup: 30,306%
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Keflex: 250 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $157.39
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.88
Percent markup: 8,372%
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Lipitor: 20 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80
Percent markup: 4,696%
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Norvasc:  10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14
Percent markup: 134,493%
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Paxil: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60
Percent markup: 2,898%
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Prevacid: 30 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $44.77
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.01
Percent markup: 34,136%
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Prilosec : 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $360.97
Cost of general active ingredients $0.52
Percent markup: 69,417%
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Prozac: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tabl ets) : $247.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11
Percent markup: 224,973%
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Tenormin: 50 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $104.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.13
Percent markup: 80,362%
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Vasotec: 10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $102.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.20
Percent markup: 51,185%
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Xanax: 1 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024
Percent markup: 569,958%
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Zestril: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) $89.89
Cost of general active ingredients $3.20
Percent markup: 2,809
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Zithromax: 600 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19
Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78
Percent markup: 7,892%
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Zocor: 40 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $350.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $8.63
Percent markup: 4,059%
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Zoloft: 50 mg
Consumer price: $206.87
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75
Percent markup: 11,821%
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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 reporter 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 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.
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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 the 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 let 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.

Sharon L. Davis
Budget Analyst
U.S. Department of Commerce
Room 6839
Office Ph: 202-482-4458
Office Fax: 202-482-5480
E-mail Address: Sdavis@doc.gov