Thread: Drug Companies Cant Make a Profit from FLU Shots!

Did you know that the main ingredients for drugs are purchased outside of the United States? No wonder drug companies cant provide enough flu vacine. There is no profit in it for them.

This article was introduced by a budget analyst from the DOC- address & email at bottom.

Interesting if it's true about perscriptions. Costco seems to be the
chapest place for perscriptions and you don't have to be a member to
purchaser there.
>
> Let's hear it for Costco!! (This is just
> mind-boggling!) Make sure you read 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 State s 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.
>
>
> The data 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 mg
> Consumer Price (100 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 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 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 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 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. 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.
> (this is true)
>
>
> I went there this past Thursday and asked them. 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
>
>

If you recall, last year when the flu shot shortage came about, it was explained that the US drug manufacturers don't make flu vaccine because there is no profit in it for them. They came right out and said so. They claim that their shareholders would be upset. As one of the shareholders (not of the millionaire variety by any means!) I wouldn't mind a bit if they made flu vaccine. We all know they make plenty off other drugs they gouge the public to sell so if they didn't gouge the public for flu vaccines, I wouldn't mind a bit.

Now, as for their ability to actually make a flu vaccine that wouldn't kill people for taking it, I have my doubts. Look at all the drugs that have been recalled that have been the result of their vast "research" and the drugs people take that have serious side effects which nobody bothered to recognize until some bigshot came down with an ailment.

I've been upset with the drug companies for years--since living overseas where I could buy just about any drug on the market in the US for about 1/10th of what I can get it for here! At that time, things like Zantac and Prilosec were prescription drugs here but not elsewhere. When the patents ran out for those drugs, they all of a sudden became over the couter remedies in this country and new, improved drugs replaced them. I find that insulting to American intelligence and it is only one more reason to look at the drug companies suspiciously.

Don't even get me STARTED on the flu vaccine FIASCO!!! What our government has done about the mess that occurred last year when they shut down Chiron, one of the TWO manufacturers of the vaccine, is just inexcusable. There should NEVER have been another shortage this year but there is. Don't let them fool you when they say there is plenty of vaccine out there but it's just a "distribution" problem. That was the last excuse I heard from the government.

Since my son is responsible for ordering the vaccine for his large group of Family Practice Physicians, he has been following this closely and, since he had not gotten ANY of the vaccine ordered from Chiron back in the spring, he started calling Chiron to find out what was going on. This is a chronicle of his investigation. He was calling CHIRON in ENGLAND every couple of weeks trying to chase down their vaccine supply and this is what he was told by the pharmacists at Chiron:
The truth is that around SEPTEMBER 15th, 2005, the FDA cleared Chiron for the production of 60 million doses of the flu vaccine. It took approximately 10 more days before anyone from the FDA, CDC or Department of Health and Human Services came up with an internal check of the manufacturing facility. Around the end of September or the first of October, he called Chiron again and, at that time, he was told that they had released THREE of the FIFTY lot numbers that they had already manufactured. By the third week in October, he STILL had not gotten any vaccine so he called Chiron AGAIN. By this time, he was HOT and he said he got some idiot pharmacist whose response to my son's questions about WHY they couldn't get that flu vaccine distributed, the pharmacist's reply was, "You have more than one television manufacturer in the US"! My son told him that would be wonderful IF HE WAS LOOKING FOR TELEVISIONS! At that point that pharmacist told him that it was still in the FDA's hands and that they couldn't ship until the FDA gave them the okay.
FINALLY, on October 28th, the FDA let Chiron ship those 3 lot numbers out of the 15 they had produced. On November 4th, my son got 150 doses from Chiron and was told that would be all they would get. After those lot numbers were shipped, Chiron made a statement and said they would not be able to meet the quota that they had expected. They said they were only going to be able to provide 10% of what they had promised.

The other thing that my son found out was that the FDA knew FOR FIVE YEARS before they shut Chiron down last year that they were producing the vaccine in a non-sterile area but they did not shut them down until Pasteur started producing the vaccine. I asked if I would be able to find all of this bull on the FDA, CDC or DHHS websites and he said that I sure wouldn't find anything there. He said all of what he found out was from sleuthing himself and putting the various explanations he was given together himself.

It is a COMPLETE DISGRACE that, in a nation as powerful as ours, we can't even get FLU VACCINE. This should be a real wake-up call to all Americans and we need to realize that, if there were a bioterrorist attack, we might as well GIVE UP. These INEPTS that are running the FDA, CDC, etc. are just more POLITICAL APPOINTEES kind of like MICHAEL BROWN of FEMA fame. They don't know what they are doing and there is no doubt in my mind that there would be NO WAY they could respond to any sort of bioterrorism attack. And, all of Bush's RHETORIC about the AVIAN FLU problem is just that--RHETORIC.

It is time that the government stepped up to the plate and started FORCING these pharmaceutical companies, who are robbing us blind, to make the flu vaccine. They can sure afford to EAT SOME OF THEIR PROFITS FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY.

That's interesting information, Butterbean, about the cost comparisons and I had heard that Costco was just MUCH cheaper on a lot of drugs than most drugstores. I have done a search on their website about some of my medication and I'm still getting mine cheaper in CANADA. That's another thing that RILES ME!! OUR PRESIDENT, in his infinite wisdom, wants to put a stop to drug reimportation from Canada because "there are no safety checks on the drugs" yet he sees no problem with us buying flu vaccine that is manufactured in another country. He is in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies just like he's in the pockets of the big oil companies.

Sorry for rambling on!!!

I was just watching O'Reilly's show from last night and he had Newt Gingrich on discussing America's readiness for a pandemic of the Avian Flu. They both agreed that there is NO WAY that our government could respond to a pandemic. Newt said that what Congress needs to do RIGHT NOW is come up with a bill that would encourage American pharmaceutical companies to get back into the business of manufacturing vaccines. He said that what is needed is a release of liability so that these trial lawyers can't be suing right and left and that Congress needs to provide tax incentives for the pharmaceutical companies that would agree to research, develop and manufacture vaccines again. I think he has some very good points and, as much as I despise what the industry that I chose as my career is doing to the American people, I do think that, in the case of vaccines, we are going to HAVE to make it profitable for them to produce them. We can't afford NOT to.

They touched on the Katrina response but neither of them even brought up the fact that, even after the MESS last year when there were SEVERE shortages of flu vaccine, they STILL didn't get their act together and make sure that it didn't happen again. We are so BOGGED DOWN IN BUREAUCRACY that we will never see the light of day if something drastic isn't done.

We will never be ready for a pandemic Avian Flu. American drug companies just cant make enough profits to fill their already bulging pants pockets. They cant be bothered. What they will do, is give access for flu shots to the 'select few' that make up this great nation of ours.
Meanwhile, we are continously being 'ripped off' by drug companies that get most of their ingredients from foreign lands.

Bootsie, Thank you for sharing that chilling information.

I can't see how the drug companies can say they aren't making a profit from flu vaccines to start with. The gov't pays for the shots for people who get them free. The patients who can't get them free have insurance companies that pay through the nose. So what is the problem?

I, too, think the gov't should force the American drug companies to make flu vaccine. Call it a "tax" for the privilege of ripping people off for literally millions of dollars every year for those "fad" drugs they peddle for ten bucks a pill to people who are rich or have fantastic insurance.

Last year, during the flu shot fiasco, I was caring for an elderly woman. I mention this here because it relates right back to the immigration problem in this area and the fact that English-speaking people are blatantly discriminated against.

Her dr. didn't have the vaccine. The dr. he suggested didn't have the vaccine. I called every doctor whose office I knew how to find. Most of the time, the second they heard her name, there was no vaccine and they didn't know where there was any. I wouldn't have found that peculiar if it hadn't been for the attitude of the people who I spoke with on the phone and the fact that the news said there was plenty of vaccine for the elderly and the daily begging for people who weren't at risk to take the shots from those who are.

Finally, I took her to the free clinic, where 98% of the people in the line didn't even speak English, most didn't look to be even 50, and they just happened to run out of the vaccine before we got to the door yet others behind us continued to go inside!

Our local news was talking about the coming flu season last night. They suggested that people go to Mexico, where you can buy drugs over the counter that you can't here, to get antibiotics!

I despise the drug manufacturers almost as much as I despise the oil cartel. Both are criminal when it comes to picking people's pockets for things they can't do without.

Oh, and my sister in CA has major medical problems and takes a closet full of medicine daily. She gets hers at Costco and swears the prices are much less than the pharmacys around her. Fortunately I don't take medication (mostly because I don't trust the drug companies not to kill me) so I couldn't tell you if there is a cost difference here in my area. I don't see a gang of people lined up at Costco's pharmacy when I go there but I do hear talk of them going to Mexico to get their drugs.

I would be a little LEERY of the drugs from Mexico but I have had a wonderful experience with the company I've dealt with in Canada for three years. Out of three prescriptions that I get there, TWO ARE MADE IN THE US!! SO, Canada buys them from the US companies, sells them to me and makes a profit I'm sure and, yet, it is CHEAPER for me to get those three from Canada than it is to get here WITH MY BLUE CROSS DRUG COPAY!! Now, there is a PROBLEM here. You KNOW Canada is not selling those drugs at a LOSS to me and, yet, they would cost me more than DOUBLE here WITH insurance.

My son just sent me some printouts from the CDC that I will read and report back!

I don't know that prescription drugs or over the counter drugs from Mexico would make me any more nervous than drugs from anywhere else. I am pretty sure the Mexican drugs come from the US as well and they, too, sell them back to people at far less than they can get them in this country. Doesn't make any sense to me but that is the way it is.

That's very possible, Junius, but, after visiting Mexico and see just how DIRTY it is, I just feel better about CLEAN CANADIAN DRUG DISTRIBUTORS!!!

LOL Bootsie. I can't dispute that! I don't have any desire to buy much of anything from Mexico and I could get there by trolley with no hassle whatsoever seven days a week.