DrMark27

No Real Competition in Drug Prices

I enjoyed this article, but I wanted to throw in a couple additional details. First, let us not forget that with about one of 20-25 new drug applications making it to market, revenues must not only cover R & D for sold drugs but also all drugs that never did make it to market. I would agree, then, that the older drugs had been more than paid for a long time hence, but there are plenty of other projects that still need funding.

Second with regard to drug pricing, pharmacies must provide their cash prices when asked. Providing you with a co-pay is a whole other animal, however. In order to get this information, the prescription must be processed; the pharmacy incurs a charge from the third party (e.g. Caremark, Medco) every time it bills insurance. Nonetheless, this would still make good business sense if it weren't for the fact that the processing of a prescription takes minutes and not seconds. With pharmacies already being pressed to the hilt to meet prescription volume and time demands, this simply is not feasable. If you want to know your co-pay structure, your best bet is to call the customer service number on the back of your prescription benefits card.