Generic Medication at $908/ounce. $14,528 dollars a Pound

[35Pete]

Generic medication. Prescribed with refills. Normally I send into a required mail pharmacy with a co-pay if more than one refill. First refill locally, the others mail-in. I forgot, but thought, hey, it's generic, been on the market 20+ years, so what's the cost? 6, 8 bucks?

Well I filled the first one and the co-pay was 38 cents.

The refill locally (insurance only covers mail-in refills)? $32. OK, so the chemicals are expensive. I brought them to work and weighed them. .92 grams.

You gotta be ****ing kidding me! That's almost $15,000 for a pound of this medication, $908 per ounce, more than goddamned gold. Jesus. No R&D costs, no liability risks since it's been on the market for 20 years.

What the hell is that all about? What the hell is the excuse for that?

[Green Lantern]

Best healthcare system money can buy.

[Lucidvizion]

Generic medication. Prescribed with refills. Normally I send into a required mail pharmacy with a co-pay if more than one refill. First refill locally, the others mail-in. I forgot, but thought, hey, it's generic, been on the market 20+ years, so what's the cost? 6, 8 bucks?

Well I filled the first one and the co-pay was 38 cents.

The refill locally (insurance only covers mail-in refills)? $32. OK, so the chemicals are expensive. I brought them to work and weighed them. .92 grams.

You gotta be ****ing kidding me! That's almost $15,000 for a pound of this medication, $908 per ounce, more than goddamned gold. Jesus. No R&D costs, no liability risks since it's been on the market for 20 years.

What the hell is that all about? What the hell is the excuse for that?

I've worked on the floor of a pharma manufacturer and I can say that there is still tons and tons of red tape and very stringent quality standards even for generics. There is a shitload of waste and also a lot of production downtime for maintainence and cleaning. Samples from the lot need to be tested by chemists before packaging, a few times every day during packaging, after packaging, and periodically even after the product has shipped.

On top of that I've seen entire production lots get scrapped... on a product that has been produced at the same plant for over 30 years. Human error, contamination, and sometimes an unstable mixture are a couple reasons this could happen.

You are right, the chemicals are the cheapest part of the whole equation.

[35Pete]

I've worked on the floor of a pharma manufacturer and I can say that there is still tons and tons of red tape and very stringent quality standards even for generics. There is a shitload of waste and also a lot of production downtime for maintainence and cleaning. Samples from the lot need to be tested by chemists before packaging, a few times every day during packaging, after packaging, and periodically even after the product has shipped.

On top of that I've seen entire production lots get scrapped... on a product that has been produced at the same plant for over 30 years. Human error, contamination, and sometimes an unstable mixture are a couple reasons this could happen.

You are right, the chemicals are the cheapest part of the whole equation.

Yes. I work within a manufacturing corporation. It's called non-value added or indirect costs.

Wow. Those costs are almost $15,000 per pound of product?

[nehemiah]

What the hell is that all about? What the hell is the excuse for that?<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4hkjkTe5kZE&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4hkjkTe5kZE&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

[shiva2999]

Generic medication. Prescribed with refills. Normally I send into a required mail pharmacy with a co-pay if more than one refill. First refill locally, the others mail-in. I forgot, but thought, hey, it's generic, been on the market 20+ years, so what's the cost? 6, 8 bucks?

Well I filled the first one and the co-pay was 38 cents.

The refill locally (insurance only covers mail-in refills)? $32. OK, so the chemicals are expensive. I brought them to work and weighed them. .92 grams.

You gotta be ****ing kidding me! That's almost $15,000 for a pound of this medication, $908 per ounce, more than goddamned gold. Jesus. No R&D costs, no liability risks since it's been on the market for 20 years.

What the hell is that all about? What the hell is the excuse for that?

It keeps Dilbert from being homeless.

[35Pete]

I've worked on the floor of a pharma manufacturer and I can say that there is still tons and tons of red tape and very stringent quality standards even for generics. There is a shitload of waste and also a lot of production downtime for maintainence and cleaning. Samples from the lot need to be tested by chemists before packaging, a few times every day during packaging, after packaging, and periodically even after the product has shipped.

On top of that I've seen entire production lots get scrapped... on a product that has been produced at the same plant for over 30 years. Human error, contamination, and sometimes an unstable mixture are a couple reasons this could happen.

You are right, the chemicals are the cheapest part of the whole equation.

I'd expect high fructose corn syrup to be about $160,000 a gallon then.

[Lucidvizion]

Yes. I work within a manufacturing corporation. It's called non-value added or indirect costs.

Wow. Those costs are almost $15,000 per pound of product?

Well, no... you have to keep in mind that everyone has to get their "cut" too. Pharmacists make 100-300k per year... how much gross profit do you think they are actually making for their corner pharmacy?

I was just trying to illustrate how the indirect costs at a pharma plant is probably greater than the vast majority of other manufacturers, because of FDA standards. It seems like you are blaming the pharma manufacturers when the problem is systemic.

[Lucidvizion]

I'd expect high fructose corn syrup to be about $160,000 a gallon then.

Quality standards for food is nowhere even close to what it is for pharmacuticals. You could eat off of the factory floor of a pharm plant but your food material company is probably as dirty as a steel stamping factory.

And you don't have to worry about high fructose corn syrup staying stable at room temp.