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Friday, January 16, 2009

Drug Prices


In my continuing low intensity conflict with my sinus infection, the allergist prescribed some Doxycycline, an old time, low cost antibiotic. I picked up a bottle of 60 capsules (50 milligrams each) on Saturday for $6.70. Monday I picked up a bottle of 30 capsules of Adoxa (150 milligrams each) for another member of my family for $105.15. Looking at the paperwork when I get home I find that Adoxa is another name for, wait for it, Doxycycline. What's going on here?

I did a little Googling and I found Adoxa is made by Doak Dermatologics. I also found this page, so I guess I got off easy paying only $100. I think the dermatologist must be in cahoots with the pharmaceutical, er, sleazy, er, respectable marketing company. Of course, most of their customers probably don't care, it's covered by insurance. I only noticed because it's January and all the medical insurance deductibles get reset to zero, so we get to pay full price for a couple of months until the deductibles are satisfied.

While I'm chasing all this down I come across this outfit: http://www-noprescription.com/
They'll sell you prescription drugs without a prescription. Curious thing is I could find no actual address for the company. Might not even be on this planet.

Update December 2016 replaced missing image.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Charles

You can always save a lot of money buying a generic medication, such as the
Doxycycline Hyclate you bought for $6.70, rather than a brand name version, such as Adoxa.
Generics have the exact same ingredients and quality, are FDA approved, but can be up to 80% cheaper.

www-noprescription is on this planet! (Melboune, Australia)
www-noprescription.com acts as an intermediary to an online pharmacy
where you can purchase prescription medications without a prior prescription.
It doesn't actually dispense the meds itself, but provides links to where you can buy them.
When you place your order, you fill out an online health questionairre form.
A doctor reviews it, and issues a prescription online for that med if O.K.'d.
The online doctor's consultation is free, you only pay for the medication after
it has been approved.

I hope your sinus problem clears quickly:)