Costco - Unbelievable!

Story verified and provided by a third party source

 Make sure you read to the end. You will be amazed.
                         

Let's hear it for Costco! (This is just mind-boggling!)

Make sure you read all of this. It was verified by a Budget Analyst out of Washington.

Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot,since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of Life Extension a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients made in other countries. In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold in America . 

Celebrex:100 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60
Percent markup: 21,712%


Claritin:10 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71
Percent markup: 30,306%


Keflex:250 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $157.39
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.88
Percent markup: 8,372%


Lipitor:20 mg
Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80
Percent markup: 4,696%


Norvasc:10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14
Percent markup: 134,493%


Paxil:20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60
Percent markup: 2,898%


Prevacid:30 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $44.77
Cost of general active ingredients: $1.01
Percent markup: 34,136%


Prilosec: 20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $360.97
Cost of general active ingredients $0.52
Percent markup: 69,417%


Prozac:20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11
Percent markup: 224,973%


Tenormin:50 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $104.47
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.13
Percent markup: 80,362%


Vasotec:10 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $102.37
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.20
Percent markup: 51,185%


Xanax:1 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79
Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024
Percent markup: 569,958%


Zestril:20 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets) $89.89
Cost of general active ingredients $3.20
Percent markup: 2,809%


Zithromax:600 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19
Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78
Percent markup: 7,892%


ZOCOR: 40 mg
Consumer price (100 tablets): $350.27
Cost of general active ingredients: $8.63
Percent markup: 4,059%

Zoloft:50 mg
Consumer price: $206.87
Cost of general active ingredients: $1..75
Percent markup: 11,821%


Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone should know about this.

It pays to shop around! This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreen's on every corner. On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News, did a story on generic drug prices gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. So often we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills.
The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are saving $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10!

At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs.

I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own experience I had to use the drug Compazine which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients.

I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for$19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150at Costco for $28.08.

I would like to mention, that although Costco is a 'membership' type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in. 

I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this story, and passing it into your own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail address.

Is Michigan missing out on an opportunity? Several weeks ago, one of our members spent time in Chicago and met family members from the east coast. The members from the east coast commented on how Michigan was the only state that they did not pay a toll in on their way to Chicago. They also commented about how poor our roads were and they would have gladly paid the toll to have better roads to travel on along the way in Michigan.

Tolls ranged from a per car entry rate in Pennsylvania, a regular interval toll in New York state to interval tolls in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Tolls ranged from $5-$12.00 in the tolled areas. This made us think. Could Michigan benefit from a toll system. Our idea encompassed toll locations at all entry points into the state (I-94 from Indiana, I-75 from Ohio, Bluewater  Bridge, Ambassador Bridge and the entry into the Upper peninsula). The idea encompasses a $5 per passenger vehicle rate and a $2.50 per axle fee for trucks, trailers, and delivery vehicles. This fee schedule is consistent with Indiana’s as well.

Opponents of tolls for Michigan roadways state that it will decrease tourism. Well New York has tollways, Illinois in and around Chicago and Ohio does as well. Does anyone stop going to New York City because of tolls? Doubtful. We have not done a full financial analysis on the idea but it stands to reason that our state could help its ailing budget considerably by utilizing tolls as a mechanism to generate revenue.

In court today, Ofc Kocenda’s attorney indicated the materials produced by Lori Bluhm in December 2009 were incomplete and not in compliance with the subpoena issued by Mr. Rhodes. All IA files relating to Mr. Kocenda and associated materials were to be turned over to the court in December 2009 for review and a determination of admissibility. Kocenda’s attorney stated that he will be recalling City Attorney Lori Bluhm back to the stand to explain herself which can best be characterized as a "career jeopardy situation" for Bluhm. ...

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In Today's Port Huron Times Herald, in a move mirrored by countless area cities, except Troy, Port Huron along with Taylor, Novi, Farmington Hills, Livonia, Sterling Heights and others have all outsourced their legal departments to cut costs. The Port Huron City Manager states that the savings is extensive and accounts to roughly a forty percent savings from the city's budget item for legal expenses which mirrors the savings calculations projected by Szerlag the Troy City Manager for outsourcing of city departments. This event just echoes Troy's need to move legal counsel to an outside firm that ... << MORE >>

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This is a great idea and would serve Troy well if we did not simply fight every lawsuit "just because" and continue to poor good money down the drain that could be used for places like the library, community center and parks.

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In a fall 2009 survey released by Oakland University and the City of Rochester Hills, city residents rated the quality of police protection provided by the Oakland County Sheriff's office as Satisfied. This is a stark contrast to the propaganda campaign perpetrated by the Troy administration indicating that a change to the Sheriff would result in substandard service and other deficiencies that require the city to maintain it'sown police service at a significantly higher cost annually.

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