big pharma/pharmaceutical/drug companies

BIG PHARMA/PHARMACEUTICAL/DRUG COMPANIES
according to consumer reports magazine survey
2/3 of patients taking a prescription medication
say that pharmaceutical companies have too
much influence on physicians prescribing habits

more than half believe that that gifts from those companies
influence physicians prescription choices

most believe that doctors favor new expensive drugs

consumers also are influenced by drug marketing
many admit to asking their doctor for drugs they have seen
advertised and most said the doctors gave them the drugs they
asked for

dont need a survey to know that this is all true

do not see drug representatives in the office
do not accept free coupons for drugs(are not in the end free
for the patient)
do not accept drug samples in the office
do not go to meetings they sponsor

drug representatives are always young and good looking
both female and male
come in frequently
most of what they say cant believe it
reminds me of the old snake oil sales people
give free lunches
really try to wine and dine the nurses
this is where the new entry point to patients is
bring in speakers who are slanted to their drugs

here is why
for my cholesterol take generic lovastatin for cholesterol  

cost $10 every 3 month cash price at certain pharmacies   cost $40 a year

branded lipitor is $140 a month cash price or $1680 a year
or $50 a month or $600 a year copay on my insurance

branded crestor is $127 a month or $1524 a year cash price
or $30 a month or $360 a year on my insurance

all three control my cholesterol to a ldl <100
do it for $40 a year

if took money spent on one year of lipitor at $600 a year
could buy 15 years of lovastatin for my cholesterol 


would have spent   $9000 for lipitor in that 15 years
or if paying cash   $25000 for lipitor in that 15 years


that is why the game of drug marketing is played like it is  
those numbers are for just one patient
multiply that by the vast numbers of people on lipitor

do admit that for cholesterol that some patients have to have
lipitor or crestor to control their cholesterol
have a relative he who has had heart attack and by pass surgery
he has to take crestor to get his ldl(bad cholesterol) less than 70

but many or most cholesterol patients could use
the generic cheap lovastatin to control theirs

recently saw a patient come in on lexapro($110), avapro($97)
and lipitor($140)
was changed to citalopram($4), lisinopril($4)
and lovastatin($4) for a toal cost of 1 year at $120

previous cost with $30 copay was $1080 for brands or
god forbid if no insurance was $4164 a year for brands

patient saved close to $1000 a year or if paying cash saved
over $4000
signficant savings huh

doctors will say that the sampling and seeing drugs representatives
dont influence them but it does    
especially recognized this when
as a physician stopped seeing the reps and stopped sampling
and stopped going to their meetings

when you use a free coupon for a medication or get a month
of free samples say for lipitor
thats great
now those free samples or coupons are short lived
your cholesterol of course is controlled by lipitor
but when you start paying for it yourself with copays or cash
then it gets expensive for you as described above

go to walmarts generic list of drugs on their website(www.walmart.com)
or get the list from their pharmacy or other pharmacies that do the same list
then look at the medications you are on and see how much
you could save a year
discuss this with our doctor

its your money you know


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