Big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target have entered a drug price war with each other, meaning lower prices for consumers, says FoxReno.com.
The effect has been widespread:
The simple $4 price has also brought transparency to the retail drug arena. Until recently, when a drug’s patent expired, pharmacies would charge as much as they liked for the generic version. One study found that the mark-ups would be as high as 4,000 per cent. For instance, in 2004, health economist Devon Herrick found that a 30-day prescription of Prozac’s generic version, Fluoxetine, was selling in Iowa for $55, in some places in Florida for $43, in Virginia for $45, and at the discount wholesale club Costco Wholesale for $7.09.
“People are just not aware of these variations, and most of them don’t compare prices,” says Herrick, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis. “Pharmacies take advantage of consumers’ lack of knowledge and mark up prices substantially.”
Source: Drug Wars At The Big-Box Stores, FoxReno.com, May 25, 2007.
For text: http://www.foxreno.com/money/13381568/detail.html
For more on Health Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=16
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 29 May 2007
