Can God Protect You From Covid?

[Tybee]

I guess I don't understand how this price thing with Advair represents r and d etc. I used to take Advair, and then the price kept going up to where the last time I was prescribed it, the copay was 356 dollars a month. I said I couldn't afford that and walked out of the pharmacy.

But I took it for years, and it was affordable, with an affordable copay. So I don't get how the price skyrocketing--and that's three people on this board alone who stopped taking it because it was unaffordable-- is a product of the costs the company ran up in developing the drug.

[Tammy]

Yes there was a time it was than 100 for advair.

Pricing with pharmaceuticals is not straight forward.

Covid vaccine had lots of govt money - but usually development of new meds are a for profit business.

But then there’s walkathons that raise money to develop new treatments.

I’ve been a nurse for 23 years and almost everything about medical related billing remains a mystery.

[sweetana3]

I am taking the generic Advair and it is working fine. Same dosage and similar container.

[catherine]

But I took it for years, and it was affordable, with an affordable copay. So I don't get how the price skyrocketing--and that's three people on this board alone who stopped taking it because it was unaffordable-- is a product of the costs the company ran up in developing the drug.

There are three factors at work:
a) Pharma companies have very little time to recoup their investments--so that's where the R&D comes in. They pay a fortune in R&D, clinical trials, etc. and the drug that is being tested through three very lengthy and costly trials might not cut the mustard. So they have to stay profitable and sometimes that means inflating the cost of other drugs to cover all the research: for the winners as well as the losers.

b) There is no one person taking money out of their pocket to pay, so costs of drugs will inflate until SOMEONE cries OUCH! That doesn't happen often--but occasionally you get a highly visible situation like the insulin "scandal".

c) Like every other market, Pharma charges what the market will bear--but the stakeholders in the market are many, as I just mentioned. I am currently working on a project where my client is testing how much patients would be willing to pay for a certain healthcare product every month. And that's just the patient out-of-pocket cost. It doesn't mean that's what the product will cost--it will cost much, much more--probably 4 times more. But the insurance company will pay for it, most likely, unless they feel it's not worth the price.

So if someone decided to scream bloody murder over the rising cost of Advair and there was a lot of negative press about it, it may bring pressure to GSK to do something about it.

As Tammy said, pricing of drugs is not straightforward AT ALL.

[JaneV2.0]

I get angry even thinking about companies making billions off desperate people; I am perpetually thankful for my good health, for that reason (and many others).

[Tammy]

I am taking the generic Advair and it is working fine. Same dosage and similar container.

I had heard that it was going generic soon - glad to hear it happened.

[Teacher Terry]

The generic is 200/month for me or 100/some months on GoodRx. My insurance told my doctor to prescribe the 2 generic medications that are in advair separately. She tried it and it was just as expensive. I just quit taking it and went from using my rescue inhaler once a year to weekly during peak allergy season.

[happystuff]

I take a thyroid medication that used to be reasonable and then apparently the drug was sold to a different company (at least that is what I was told) and the price more than quadrupled! I had to switch and live with side effects from other versions. Am back on the good one only because of the VA.

And I recall the same thing happening with epi pens.

As Tybee pointed out, these are medicines that have been around for a long, long time with reasonable pricing, then... Boom! the prices sky-rocketed. As my medication is life-long, it's not like I can stop taking it... just seems strange.

[JaneV2.0]

I take a thyroid medication that used to be reasonable and then apparently the drug was sold to a different company (at least that is what I was told) and the price more than quadrupled! I had to switch and live with side effects from other versions. Am back on the good one only because of the VA.

And I recall the same thing happening with epi pens.

As Tybee pointed out, these are medicines that have been around for a long, long time with reasonable pricing, then... Boom! the prices sky-rocketed. As my medication is life-long, it's not like I can stop taking it... just seems strange.

It doesn't seem strange to me; it's all about the profit. We need to change the system--at this point, we're all just a bunch of marks.