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> The worst part, you can get the same drug for pennies outside USA. The drug that probably US companies or research invented. I have direct personal experienc
by basicmedicines 8y ago
> The worst part, you can get the same drug for pennies outside USA. The drug that probably US companies or research invented.
I have direct personal experience with this, as an American living in the Netherlands. My youngest kid recently had worms appear in her poo. I called up the doctor's office and got a straightforward direction over the phone: go to any pharmacy, ask for mebendazole, give her one pill directly and one more after 2 weeks. No prescription necessary, no doctor's visit necessary unless worms persisted after the second dose.
I went to the pharmacy. The medication - 2 doses - was 90 cents. Problem solved.
Out of curiosity, I looked up the medication online. It's generic now, having been first marketed in the early 70's. It's considered one of the two standard de-wormers for humans and is on the WHO list of essential medicines.
In America, it costs somewhere between $200 and $400 per dose (i.e. double that for a course of treatment.) Why? Because one generic maker (Impax) has cornered the US market. And it would have required a doctor's visit and prescription to acquire.
US health care is so fucked.
- WillPostForFood 8y agoMebendazole didn't use to be so expensive in the US. This is another Martin Shkreli type situation. In the United States a single dose was about 18 USD in 2015.[3] In 2016 the price increased to 440.00 USD per dose in the U.S. as Amedra Pharmaceuticals acquired the rights from Teva in 2013.[8] In 2010, Amedra also bought the U.S. Marketing rights to the only other interchangeable anti-parasitic medication, albendazole, from GSK. The result of these acquisitions created a monopoly these medications and the price increased dramatically.[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mebendazole#Cost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mebendazole#Cost