Doxycycline Price Increase 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sudden increase in cost of common drug concerns many – WSMV Channel 4

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) –

Many people may not recognize the name, but they have probably used it for a health problem at one point.

Doctors use doxycycline to treat a wide range of issues, including everything from acne to Lyme disease, anthrax exposure and even heartworm in our pets.

However, the once cheap and effective drug has now dramatically gone up in price, and that has health professionals concerned.

Hospitals like Vanderbilt University Medical Center keep doxycycline in stock, but some folks worry the cure for their ailment could now be financially out of reach.

“It's a change that occurred overnight,” said Vanderbilt pharmacy manager Michael O'Neil.

Not long ago, the pharmacy at Vanderbilt's hospital could purchase a 50-count bottle of 100 mg doxycycline tablets for $10, but now the same bottle costs a staggering $250.

“That's concerning to us, both as citizens and practitioners, when you see a huge increase like this in a price of a drug,” O'Neil said.

Vanderbilt keeps thousands of doxycycline pills on hand in the event of a bioterrorist attack, like anthrax, and O'Neil said replacing expired pills is prohibitive.

“This one is just hurting us when we need to replace the medication,” he said.

But it's the most vulnerable who are in the most jeopardy. For a pet, a heartworm diagnosis can be a death sentence without doxycycline.

Veterinarian Dr. Joshua Vaughn of the Columbia Hospital for Animals is already seeing the tragic results.

“We had one patient who we diagnosed with heartworm. We recommended heartworm treatment, but when they saw the total dollar amount, they elected not to treat the dog at all,” Vaughn said.

While manufacturers say they are having problems with raw supply, many in the medical community see greed as an overriding factor.

Vaughn said he wrote a recent prescription for doxycycline that cost $77. This week, the price increased to nearly $3,000.

Copyright 2013 WSMV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

When a drug costs 30 times what it once did

An Orange County woman paid $4.30 for a generic antibiotic and was asked… (Gary Friedman, Los Angeles…)

Diane Shattuck filled a prescription in December for a generic antibiotic called doxycycline. With insurance, she paid $4.30 for 60 pills at a CVS store in Orange.

She returned at the end of February to refill her prescription. This time, she was told her cost for the drug would be about $165.

“It was bizarre,” Shattuck, 73, told me. “And no one at CVS could explain why the price was so high.”

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to offer a clear-cut answer, either. But my effort to untangle Shattuck’s situation cast a harsh light on the shadowy world of drug pricing.

It revealed that different manufacturers can charge wildly different prices for what is essentially the same generic medicine, and that drugstores can rake in unconscionable profits by passing along marked-up meds to customers without the slightest explanation.

“It’s a very murky world,” said Jeffrey McCombs, a professor of pharmaceutical economics and policy at USC. “All you can say for sure is that the price being charged has nothing to do with the actual cost of producing the generic.”

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about insane healthcare charges. Time magazine carried an extraordinary article by Steven Brill recently highlighting the arbitrariness of many hospital prices. My own columns on being hospitalized after a cat bite touched on some of the same issues.

But crazy hospital charges often can be negotiated lower by patients or patient advocates. Prescription drugs are offered by pharmacies to customers on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. And many people might not think to even question the price being charged.

Shattuck was prescribed doxycycline for a skin rash. The first batch of pills she received was manufactured by Watson Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Switzerland’s Actavis Group last year. Watson specializes in generic drugs.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “doxycycline is in a class of medications called tetracycline antibiotics.” It’s used to treat inflections, “including pneumonia and other respiratory tract infections; Lyme disease; acne; infections of skin, genital and urinary systems.”

When Shattuck tried to refill her prescription last month, she was informed that the only doxycycline available was manufactured by Mylan Pharmaceuticals, which, like Watson, specializes in generic drugs. Mylan’s doxycycline, however, came with a price tag absurdly higher than Watson’s.

Shattuck’s doctor said she could skip the refill and stop taking the med, so she never had to fork over the extra cash. But the experience left her wondering how the insured price of the drug could have gone from just a few bucks one month to $165 two months later.

Mike DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman, blamed the problem on “a supplier shortage” involving Watson’s doxycycline.

He also said that, “recognizing the significant price difference between the generic drug our patient was previously dispensed and one that was available from a different generic supplier,” Shattuck was offered “a bridge supply of her prescription until the original supplier’s product became available.”

CVS reordered the Watson-made doxycycline within a week’s time, DeAngelis said, and “refilled her prescription Feb. 22 and left her a message that her order was ready.”

First of all, Shattuck told me that CVS’ “bridge supply” consisted of just three pills, which weren’t enough to last until the new refill was ready. Moreover, she said, there was no message from the pharmacy that a refill was ready.

“That’s because they don’t have our phone number,” Shattuck explained. “We don’t want them calling all the time to say our prescriptions are ready.”

As for that supplier shortage, Charlie Mayr, a spokesman for Watson’s parent, Actavis, said that “we are shipping to all customers, including CVS. There is no shortage of inventory from the Actavis perspective that we are aware of.”

He declined to comment on the pricing of his company’s doxycycline, as did Nina Devlin, a spokeswoman for Mylan.

But Devlin said that Mylan’s doxycycline and Watson’s doxycycline are not perfectly identical, “and therefore cannot be compared by price.”

William Comanor, head of pharmaceutical economics and policy studies at UCLA, said this was a ridiculous distinction.

“Doxycycline is always going to be the same in terms of active ingredients,” he said. “The inert compounds may be different, but not the active ingredients. They have to be consistent.”

A CVS pharmacist in Los Angeles, who asked that his name by withheld because of fear of retaliation by the company, shared with me the average wholesale price of different makers’ doxycycline, as made available to pharmacists by the McKesson Connect online ordering system.

The system shows that the average wholesale price of 100 doxycycline pills made by Watson with a strength of 100 milligrams is $328.20. The same number of doxycycline pills at the same strength made by Mylan cost $1,314.83.

Be Wary of Stratospheric Increases in Generic Drug Prices

Generic medications are supposed to be a bargain. According to the FDA, patients may be able to save as much as 80 percent on some products.

Big box discount stores have enticed customers with a three-month supply for $10. There are certain pharmacies that have even gone so far as to give away some popular generics such as atorvastatin (Lipitor) to lower cholesterol.

The generic drug industry is changing, however, and consumer savings are slipping. In some cases, the rise in generic drug prices has been breathtaking.

Take the antibiotic doxycycline, for example. It was first approved under the brand name Vibramycin in 1967. This broad-spectrum tetracycline-type drug has been used for decades to treat a wide range of infections, from chlamydia and cholera to Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Doctors also use it for urinary and respiratory tract infections.

Doxycycline used to be dirt cheap. One analysis from Pembroke Consulting found that the price of this antibiotic has gone from $.06 per pill to $3.65. That is an increase of over 6,000 percent in a relatively short period of time.

The same analysis found that clomipramine, a drug prescribed for obsessive-compulsive disorder, has gone up more than 3,000 percent from $0.27 per pill to $8.57.

Why have some generic drugs gone up so dramatically? Consolidation within the generic pharmaceutical industry means that fewer companies are making generic medications. Just three companies, Mylan, Teva and Actavis, generated 44 percent of generic drug revenue around the world.

Another serious problem is shortages. A number of companies have stopped making certain generic drugs. Lack of competition has led to decreased supply and increased demand, resulting in price gouging.

Several large generic drug makers have gotten into trouble with the FDA because of bad manufacturing practices. As a result, some key products from abroad have been banned, contributing to shortages and higher prices.

Pharmacies can also charge vastly different amounts for the same generic products. Consumer Reports surveyed 200 pharmacies around the country and found a wide spread in prices. Atorvastatin (Lipitor) ranged from $150 at CVS to $17 at Costco. Clopidogrel (Plavix) had a similar variation, from $15 at a discount drugstore to $180 at a large chain.

What should consumers do? It is becoming more difficult to do price comparisons online, but it is still important to shop comparatively. Call different pharmacies to get their prices. Sometimes bargaining will work, since many pharmacies are willing to match a competitor’s price.

Another place to get comparative price information is PharmacyChecker.com. This website uses international pharmacies to find the best price for both generic and brand name drugs. We also offer guidelines and tips for using generic drugs wisely in our Guide to Saving Money on Medicine.

Join Over 120,000 Subscribers at The People’s Pharmacy

Each week we send two free email newsletters with breaking health news, prescription drug information, home remedies and a preview of our award-winning radio show. Join our mailing list and get the information you need to make confident choices about your health.

Doxycycline Price Increase 2014

Related Posts:

can you buy doxycycline in india
doxycycline buy australia
doxycycline increase in price
doxycycline online bestellen
can i buy doxycycline at walmart
buy doxycycline pills online
do you need a prescription for doxycycline in australia
cost of doxycycline in uk
doxycycline mail order
can you buy doxycycline over the counter uk