Pharmaceutical companies are crooks!

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

A friend's sister is newly pregnant and is having pretty bad morning sickness. She was telling my friend about a medication her OB prescribed her and she learned it's about $100/pill! Luckily, her insurance covers it, though.

The drug? Diclegis. What is Diclegis, you ask? It's effin' Vitamin B6 and Unisom! Both things you can buy OTC, big bottle, for less than $10.

But some pharmaceutical company gave it a fancy name and put a silhouette of a pregnant woman on the pill, and now they can charge $100 a pill??

CROOKS, I tell you!

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If that's really what the pill contains, why wouldn't she just take the B6 and Unisom separately? Why reward the pharmaceutical company for this behavior by actually buying the medication?

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
If that's really what the pill contains, why wouldn't she just take the B6 and Unisom separately? Why reward the pharmaceutical company for this behavior by actually buying the medication?

She didn't know that's all it was.

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Specializes in Oncology.

What you're paying for when you pay that price is the fact that they actually studied that specific combination in a pregnant population- a hard thing to do, and they're marketing it to pregnant people- a risky thing to do from a litigation perspective.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
What you're paying for when you pay that price is the fact that they actually studied that specific combination in a pregnant population- a hard thing to do, and they're marketing it to pregnant people- a risky thing to do from a litigation perspective.

True, but this combination of meds has been used for about 50 years in pregnant patients, and there is a lot of research out there already about it. It had been offered many years ago as a different drug (Bendectin, Diclectin).

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Specializes in ICU.

Don't forget that *mumblemumble* who bought the rights for that anti-parasitic drug and shot the price up for the heck of it. When people have the opportunity to make money, they will often trample everyone in their paths to do so.

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i thought Bendictin had been declard unsafe.....

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Specializes in School Nursing, Hospice,Med-Surg.

Yep, I saw an ad in People magazine for a new sleep med called Silenor. It was the super old school anti-depressant, Doxepin, that just has the common side effect of drowsiness.

With my prescription plan, generic Doxepin 10 mg tablets are $24 for a 3 month suppy but the new Silenor (which only comes in a 3 mg or 6 mg tablet) is $650.18 for a 3 month supply of the 6 mg tablet. Oooh, fancy new sleep drug!!

And my neurologist has just written for a "new migraine abortive med" called Cambia. I was excited to learn about it when I found out it's Diclofenac in powdered form. Diclofenac 50 mg tablets in a 3 month supply is $24 with my insurance. 9 packets of this new Cambia is $381.79.

Bend over, America. Here comes big Pharm.

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Personally I am happy companies can charge whatever they want for their products. If you don't like their product or how much it costs, don't buy it. Be an informed consumer, like in all things.

The fact that you can make incredible profits is incentive for investors to invest, chemists to research, engineers to engineer, and researchers to research.

I am on the medical device side of the field but I can tell you billions is dumped into research in my small arena to provide better, safer, more effective equipment BECAUSE investors know that if we come up with a super device that saves lives then we will make a nice profit.

There will be those of us who still research and work for better devices because we see it as a mission in life but good intentions and happy thoughts do not pay the research.

It is an ugly truth but research and innovation are not free.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Have you looked at different pharmacies as well? I have several prescriptions, including one I needed filled on short notice after my normal pharmacy had closed. I ended up using CVS as they were the only pharmacy still open that I could get to before it closed. They charged $12 for it; once I refilled it at my normal pharmacy, I paid $0.68. Yes, more than $11 less.

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Specializes in Oncology.

The Pharmacy Rip Off List, by David Stanley, is a Kindle book with all kinds of examples of these meds that are just rebranded and dosed slightly differently. It's pretty interesting.

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Specializes in Telemetry.

I wish there were a class required in high school that taught things like understanding the basics of research studies, financial common sense, and how to read labels of both food and drugs.

Case in point: ZzQuil (from company that manufacturers NyQuil and DayQuil) is an otc sleep aid that contains no pain reliever for times you just need a little help to nod off.

48 caps per pack - 2 caps per dose (each cap 25 mG) - available at Walgreens for 14.99.

Of course most of us reading this likely read the box and realize this "amazing" drug is merely diphenhydramine hcl in with a fancy (and pricey) brand name. We understand we can just ease over to the allergy aisle and purchase a store brand pack of diphenhydramine hcl 25 mG at 5.99 for 48 caps. The store brand is even buy one get one half off as I type this.

Most people probably don't think or know how to figure this out and line the pockets of the manufacturer.

Totally legal but a shame so many waste the money unnecessarily.

Perhaps a course in high school could teach people how to be more savvy consumers?

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