Generic Prescript. costs = Name Brand...huh? (Read 1195 times)

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rectumdamnnearkilledem

    Yeah, I meant the full retail price... about $240/mo if you're rollin' up w/o insurance.

     

    Yep...totally unaffordable.  The only people who can afford that can afford to buy their own insurance. Undecided

    Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

    remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

         ~ Sarah Kay

      Move to Canada.  All prescription medications I have taken in my life have been covered by tax money.  Big grin

       

      ~Sigh~

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      rectumdamnnearkilledem

        Have a talk with him about sneaking drinks.  I know this is random, but the other night we had an issue with a kid who's on Adderall and snuck away to have a few drinks with his buddy.  Paramedics, the whole nine. He's a pretty big kid and didn't drink too much.   I know you're is young yet, but boys will be boys.  

         

        Oh, yikes!  That is scary--mixing a stimulant with a sedative.  And definitely a point that makes underage drinking an even bigger danger.  Though one of the factors that our pediatrician explained to us back when Dane was first diagnosed is that kids and adults who are not medically treated for ADHD are more likely to self-medicate.  It helped us with the decision to treat him medically.  So far it's worked quite well, aside from the number it does on his appetite.  We keep hoping that he will be one of those lucky kids who outgrow it, but that's pretty rare.  My brother was just diagnosed in the past year.  He is almost 35 and has simply learned to cope over the years.  His symptoms were never as severe as Dane's, though.  It's really shocking how much my son is like my brother...with the ADHD, as well as his academic and musical interests/abilities.  I joke that I gave birth to a clone of my brother. Tongue

        Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

        remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

             ~ Sarah Kay

        xor


          What?

           

          Edit:  Something very very very weird just happened message-board wise.  And it wasn't just me thinking I was responding to thread A but accidentally posting in thread B.  There was, briefly, a post presented to me between zz's and this one from Nader that seemed to be from a wholly different conversation.  And now, I assume, is appearing in the proper place.

           

          I am not making this up.  It can't be me being just "one thread off" because that phantom response is not in a thread near this thread in the list.

           

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          rectumdamnnearkilledem

            What?

             

            Edit:  Something very very very weird just happened message-board wise.  And it wasn't just me thinking I was responding to thread A but accidentally posting in thread B.  There was, briefly, a post presented to me between zz's and this one from Nader that seemed to be from a wholly different conversation.  And now, I assume, is appearing in the proper place.

             

            I am not making this up.  It can't be me being just "one thread off" because that phantom response is not in a thread near this thread in the list.

             

            You have now entered...the Twilight Zone...doodooodoodoo... I didn't see it, but I've seen sometimes where 2 copies of an identical thread will show for a brief time.  Maybe it was some server hiccup...?

            Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

            remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                 ~ Sarah Kay

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            rectumdamnnearkilledem

              Wait...was it Nader's post?  Where did that go?  Hmmm...this thread is a little ADHD, perhaps. Confused

               

              Whoops, I see you said it wasn't Nad's post.  That is weird.

              Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

              remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                   ~ Sarah Kay

              xor


                What I'm saying is that between your post that starts "Oh, yikes!" and my post that says "What?", there was... briefly... a post by Nader that made no sense in this thread.  By the time I posted "What?", it was gone.

                 

                Normal people can't delete posts, of course.  So either:

                 

                1. There was a gremlin which cleared itself up

                or

                2. Perhaps there's a mod tool that deletes posts and it got used because the post was in error

                 

                Neither is terribly important.

                 

                WOOHOO FOR NATIONAL RUNNING DAY!

                 

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                rectumdamnnearkilledem

                  WOOHOO FOR NATIONAL RUNNING DAY!

                   

                  Whoohoo, indeed! Big grin

                  Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

                  remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                       ~ Sarah Kay


                  Feeling the growl again

                    Here is your answer:

                     

                    Hatch-Waxman Act.

                     

                    Basically, if a generic company can get a branded company's patent invalidated then they get a 6-month exclusivity period.  This is a boon for this one generic company, because they charge 90-100% of the branded price for that 6 months and reap what is often the majority of the money they will ever make selling that generic during that 6 months.

                     

                    The result is that when you say "something recently went generic" it tells me that it is in this 6-month window or close enough after that multi-generic competition has not yet had time to drive the price down.

                     

                    If your doc writes "no generics" the price you pay for the branded will often be HIGHER than what it was before generics entered the market.  Since the branded company no longer has exclusivity and cannot compete with generic makers, their volume becomes a small fraction of what it was when they had exclusivity.  However, they still have the only original branded version and the small number of people who still want THE branded version are usually pretty price-insensitive...so it makes sense to raise the price to make a little more off the tiny remaining volume.

                     

                    The intent of the whole 6-month generic exclusivity was to encourage the breaking of patents to bring in generics sooner....one may argue that branded companies will simply plan this into their pricing strategy so it will not have the overall intended effect....or that if it does it will discourage development by decreasing returns.  One thing I can tell you definitively is that it DOES increase costs because once a drug gets into the latter half of its patent life, every generic company and their uncle starts filing lawsuits hoping that they will be the one to win the 6-month exclusivity award.  The branded company must then pay to litigate this whole basket of lawsuits....often for years.....and it passes these costs on to you in the form of higher prices.

                     

                    Regarding Synthroid, it is a well-known fact that you cannot switch generic versions as their potency differs.  I will not go into the long story of why generics are not all the same but let's say there is a reason that, with some drugs, people stick with the branded or make sure they always get the SAME generic.  I am on generic Synthroid now, and I made sure to confirm that my pharmacy only carries one generic and that is the only place I will fill my script.  If you switch, you risk needing to re-titer your dose.

                    "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                     

                    I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                     

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                    rectumdamnnearkilledem

                      That all makes sense.  It's kinda stupid and more than a little annoying, but it's not all that surprising.  What a racket! Tongue

                      Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

                      remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                           ~ Sarah Kay

                      Trent


                      Good Bad & The Monkey

                        Spaniel got a big part of it.  The thing that many don't realize is that the first generic to market, taking advantage of the 6 month exclusivity, is often manufactured by a generic company owned by the brand name company.  The price for the first generic for any brand is frequently no more than 10% less than the brand.  Your insurance company knows this and the (still) high cost of the drug gets passed onto you as a tier three copay.  Wait 6 to 9 months and the pricing will get better.  If you care to name the drug I can give you more details.

                        Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.

                          What I'm saying is that between your post that starts "Oh, yikes!" and my post that says "What?", there was... briefly... a post by Nader that made no sense in this thread.  By the time I posted "What?", it was gone.

                           

                          Normal people can't delete posts, of course.  So either:

                           

                          1. There was a gremlin which cleared itself up

                          or

                          2. Perhaps there's a mod tool that deletes posts and it got used because the post was in error

                           

                          Neither is terribly important.

                           

                          WOOHOO FOR NATIONAL RUNNING DAY!

                          If there was, I don't know about it. It must have been while I was modifying my post.

                           

                          You know, I wish you wouldn't see me as a mod. I'm just a regular guy who pulls his socks over his pants one leg at a time, just like anyone else.

                           

                          Whoop! Baby's crying. Lata.

                          "If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus

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                          rectumdamnnearkilledem

                            In what way ?

                             

                            Generics no cheaper than name brands and sometimes more expensive...you wouldn't consider that a bit of a racket?  Or the change to albuterol to a new cfc-free delivery system, thus making a formerly inexpensive and potentially life-saving medication $$ once again and less effective (and I don't care what some "experts" will say about the new propellant, it doesn't work nearly as well as the CFC version did.  1 puff of that usually worked well for me.  Sometimes 2 puffs of new stuff does little to nothing, because the nozzle is constantly clogged, so I depress a dose, only to have nothing come out, then I have to find a place to wash the mouthpiece to get the dose.  Today I nearly puked in my car from a coughing attack.  I am far from alone in my frustration with this).  Seems like the banning of the CFC propellant simply allowed a company to profit at the expense of asthmatics.  In a case like a governmental ban on a propellant in a medication, the gov. should have prevented anyone from profiting from a new patent to an existing drug, simply because the propellant had to be changed.  

                             

                            To be honest, I don't use my rescue inhaler a lot of times when I probably should, because it ends up costing too freaking much on top of my long-acting steroid inhaled med, which is also not generic.

                            Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

                            remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                                 ~ Sarah Kay

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                            rectumdamnnearkilledem

                              If there was, I don't know about it. It must have been while I was modifying my post.

                               

                               

                              That's what's weird...your post disappeared entirely, for a while.  Had I not quoted it there would have been no evidence that it ever existed, at least on my end.

                              Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

                              remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                                   ~ Sarah Kay