Comments on: Samples

By: lauredhel

lauredhel — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:59:52 +0000

Tarpy: it’s some of the reason, but not the only reason. If you compare private prices, with no subsidies in sight, many medications in America are still substantially more expensive (often 50-100% or more) than in Australia.

By: Tarpy

Tarpy — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:58:14 +0000

I’m a medical student in Australia, and I just thought I’d mention that the reason drugs are so cheap here isn’t entirely because the pharmaceutical companies price-gouge in the USA; the government covers most of the cost. If you don’t match their requirements though, you have to pay the full price. And they’re often limited in amounts or repeats or brands, and in some cases the doctors have to ring up a special phone-line to get the authority to prescribe it EACH script.
Our government is very wary of drug companies and their influence on doctors. For the past few years there have been limits placed on how much they can spend on ‘gifts’ and lunches for GPs. And from this year, I believe, they’re no longer allowed to give out pens and pads of paper and things that patients might walk away with. While we medical students mourn the fact that we now have to pay for our pens and notebooks, I’ll freely admit that it might be a good thing. The notebooks I’ve used have lodged the brand names of certain medications in my memory. We’re taught not to use brand names when studying, but I have to think harder to remember Pregabalin as opposed to Lyrica. And I actually have to look up Xanax to work out what kind of anxiolytic it is.
And just as an amusing aside; I sat in with a GP for 8 weeks who used to save up samples of a certain medication for a patient. I don’t know if it was because she couldn’t afford it or didn’t qualify for the subsidised program. But every time that drug rep came in, the GP’d go straight to the sample cupboard with a bag and take all of them!

By: Brenda

Brenda — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:14:05 +0000

I googled advair diskus, and learned it has the same active ingredient as my inhaler. I pay $3 per inhaler. I don’t have insurance… I live in new zealand where we have government subsidies on prescriptions… But I also see the full cost on the receipt. These inhalers are approx us$60 each. So ye gads what a price hike they have in your area!

By: cathy

cathy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:33:54 +0000

lilacsigil, something that a lot of people do not know about development of drugs in the US is that the federal government subsidizes and sometimes outright pays for a lot of the most complex and long term drug studies and development. The National Institute of Health is the single largest investor in new drug development, and it gets its funds from tax dollars. So, while some people assume that it is the profit driven system that speeds up development, in fact a lot of this development relies on federal funds. The largest expenditure of drug companies does not lie in development, it lies in lobbying.

By: lilacsigil

lilacsigil — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:24:19 +0000

If they’re not going to fix the overall system, though, I would rather that loopholes like this continue to exist

Yeah. The problem is not the presence of freebies, the problem is that lack of genuine alternatives. Australia is slower to get new drugs than the US, but the government negotiates us a stable and lower price in the meantime. This can be really bad for people with rapidly progressing or rare diseases who can see people in the US getting new treatment that might benefit them – but they can’t access it, or only at high prices. But it’s not like people in the US are paying less for those new drugs, and we do get fairly distributed (except in very rural areas) and relatively affordable medications in return. I take a contraceptive pill for my PCOS, and because it’s a higher dose pill usually used for control of skin conditions, it’s not subsidised by the government. It’s still 70% cheaper than the same drug in the US, and I can buy it as often as I need it, allowing me to stack the pills and have only 4 periods a year.

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:54:49 +0000

Yep. I have a medication that is very expensive, has no generic alternative, and that my insurance stopped covering awhile back - even with my doctor's letter explaining why I really need it. So, when I see my doctor, I ask for samples. Sometimes I get them and sometimes not. It's lucky for me this is a medication I only take "as needed" and don't need all that frequently. It's prescribed for me off-label, so even if the company that makes it has an assistance program, I don't think I'd be eligible. [It's lidoderm patches that help my severe back pain, but it's only FDA approved for shingles, which is why my insurance company won't let me have it anymore, either.] I'm grateful, obviously, for the samples. But it would be much much better if we could change how unnecessarily expensive medications are and how unnecessarily difficult it can be to get certain medications, than for me to get some free samples from my doctor every few months. .-= Rosemary´s last blog ..Blah-der-day. =-.

By: Anji

Anji — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:14:44 +0000

I still can’t quite get my head around the idea of paying for healthcare. I thank my lucky stars I’ve rarely had to do so (I am on Incapacity Benefit so I don’t pay), and when I have it’s been at a fixed price (here in the UK, no matter what your medication is it costs you £7.40 (I think) per prescription). The NHS isn’t perfect, but it works. I hope the US finds a way that works soon… nobody should be without vital medication simply because of cost.
.-= Anji´s last blog ..Blogrollin’ =-.

By: The Nerd

The Nerd — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:03:36 +0000

I’ve been rescued by freebies. I suffer from breakthrough bleeding while on the pill. The first prescription I was ever on had a too-low dose, so in the middle of the month, I started bleeding and bleeding and after a week it wasn’t stopping. The doctor gave me a freebie pack of pills to boost my hormone levels so that I could recover quickly before switching to a different prescription. Freebies give doctors the freedom to make on-the-spot effective decisions. If only there were a way to make all medication free to the public…

By: meloukhia

meloukhia — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:42:43 +0000

Yes, drug prices here are generally more expensive; in part because of all the reasons Lauredhel identified. DTC marketing is quite expensive, and people definitely pay for that in drug prices. They also charge high prices because, well, they can get away with it, since it’s structured into the system. Very few consumers question drug prices because they’re either insured and unaware of the actual sticker price, or they’re paying out of pocket and need the medication so they can’t fight the price.

And I concur; the best fix for the system is to dismantle the system and start over. Alas, the same nice pharmaceutical company that sometimes gives out free medication is also in Washington, lining the pockets of members of Congress to ensure that they don’t pass the obvious solution: a nationalized single payer plan.

By: Bene

Bene — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:31:31 +0000

Oh, I agree–as I went into today on my Dreamwidth, I sort of had a wakeup call to the utter brokenness of the system within the last 24 hours. It’s terrible, and one could argue that the loopholes add to it. But they also keep some people afloat.

Basically, we need to wipe the slate clean.

Incidentally, I’ve been finding that it’s not just prescription drugs that are overpriced in the US. The 10 count pack of brand name Lemsip that I bought for my cold cost £3.12 (at current exchange: $5 USD) at major pharmacy price, and contains more effective medicine. US equivalent brand name Theraflu costs $5.49 at the cheapest, and it’s only a 6 count pack.