Celebrex 100 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60
Percent markup: 21,712%
2003 Wholesale Price in the US : $101.48
2003 Wholesale Price in Australia : $24.97
Claritin 10 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71
Percent markup: 30,306%
Lipitor 20 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80
Percent markup: 4,696%
2003 Wholesale Price in the US : $89.50
2003 Wholesale Price in Australia : $49.95
Norvasec 10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14
Percent markup: 134,493%
2003 Wholesale Price in the US : $35.69
2003 Wholesale Price in Australia : $18.52
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%
Prozac 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11
Percent markup: 224,973%
Xanax 1 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024
Percent markup: 569,958%
Zithromax 600 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19
Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78
Percent markup: 7,892%
Zoloft 50 mg
Consumer price: $206.87
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75
Percent markup: 11,821%
2003 Wholesale Price in the US : $62.57
2003 Wholesale Price in Australia : $29.28
Yeah, let’s just call most Medical Companies utter scum, plain evil and utterly and beyond humane. And I know, the reason why it’s so expensive, according to them, is the cost of research.
The problem is, the cost isn’t even close to justifying the enormous cost of medicine in America. And also happen to know, from a visit I paid to Lundbeck, a large Danish medical company, together with my old college, and I was talking with one of their researchers, and I remember her saying:
“We really just try a bunch of random crap we think may have an effect on a medical condition, and hope for the best, we then dump the failed details into a massive database, just so we avoid doing the same experiment twice and they may still come in handy.”
Awesome isn’t it? Their research costs aren’t even close to justifying it, the real expensive for most big American medical companies are lobbying, campaign contributions and their shareholders.
That’s it. The research cost is absolutely nothing.
And I’m happy as fuck I live in Denmark, a civilized country with Universal Public Healthcare, where medicin is largely subsidized and where companies aren’t the most important thing for the Government, but the Consumer!
And where Campaign Contributions are being watched by the media, like the little profiteering vultures they are, and a love them for it.