From Ivy.Wong@us-ti-xims-1.am.sony.com Fri May 02 18:31:30 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: Jessl@jessl.best.vwh.net Received: (qmail 54930 invoked by uid 24028); 2 May 2003 18:31:30 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mail6.fw-bc.sony.com) ([160.33.98.73]) (envelope-sender ) by 192.220.93.220 (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 2 May 2003 18:31:30 -0000 Received: from mail2.sjc.in.sel.sony.com (mail2.sjc.in.sel.sony.com [43.134.1.111]) by mail6.fw-bc.sony.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id SAA06968; Fri, 2 May 2003 18:30:51 GMT Received: by mail2.sjc.in.sel.sony.com id SAA15736; Fri, 2 May 2003 18:30:50 GMT Received: by us-sj-xims-2.am.sony.com with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) id ; Fri, 2 May 2003 11:30:50 -0700 Message-ID: <3B051C27E7D0D211B4760090273B18E9058F1B8D@us-sj-xmsg-3.am.sony.com> From: "Wong, Ivy" To: Subject: FW: COSTCO PRESCRIPTIONS Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 11:30:39 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Status: OR > On Monday night (July 22), Steve Wilson, > an investigative reporter for > channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story > on generic drug price gouging by > pharmacies. He found in his investigation, > that some of these generic drugs > were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. > Yes, that's not a typo..... three > thousand percent! > > Mr. Wilson did a thorough research, and > checked out all the major drugstore > chains, discount chains, independent > pharmacies, and even checked on some > Canadian pharmacies. > > So often, we blame the drug companies > for the high cost of drugs, and > 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. They gave the link to Costco, > which I will include here, so that you > can go and check prices for yourself. > > www.Costco.com Costco Online pharmacy > Costco Online > > I went to the Costco site, where > you can look up any drug, and get it's > 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 a > friend's experience, she had to use > the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent > nausea in chemo patients. > > She used the generic equivalent, > which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. > She checked the price at Costco, and she > could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. > For 145 of her pain pills she paid $72.57. > My friend could have got 150 at > 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 letter, and > pasting it into your own email, and > send it to everyone you know with an > email address. > > And if anyone has other ideas of how > to address this problem, please contact > me at cleg@bignet.net. > > This practice is almost sinful, and > just maybe, working together, we can do > something about this. ------------- End Forwarded Message -------------