$200 for NINE pills?!?

Okay, I guess I recently developed asthma. I had been wheezing a little and chalked it up to pollen, but it got really bad the last 2 days and even taking hits off my son's albuterol (which he no longer uses) wasn't helping. I got in to see my doc today and got a bag full of meds. She's great and gave me samples except for the steroid which is covered by insurance. (Only $2!) Anyway, I also mentioned that the last sample she'd given me of migraine meds worked great! She wrote me up a prescription saying that it might not be covered so I had the pharmacist check on it....almost $200 for 9 little pills! $22 per pill? How can they justify that? The migraines are terrible and I get one about once a month. Basically, I can barely move without puking and any noise or light kills me. These pills took like an hour to work and make you a little loopy, but the pain stops which anyone with a migraine knows is sweet relief. Before these, I basically had to wait until my husband was home to watch our kids and then take a sleeping pill.


Thanks for reading my rant!

Also, I have read that most asthmatics are deficient in a certain nutrient. Also, you might try..Buteyko breathing methods... just trying to help.

They're usually even cheaper, and their placebo effect is just as effective. Of course, for cost-effectiveness, nothing can beat making your own sugar pills. Just empty out some Tylenol capsules, fill 'em with sugar, then put 'em in an old prescription bottle and convince yourself they're medicine.

:sarcasm:

What would be the harm of seeing one? Less expensive, I bet, then $200 for 9 pills.

I'm sure some of those methods work.

Of course, contrary to what some people might believe, some medications do work and are necessary.

it's just that most of the chemicals used in medications are "phytochemicals," i.e. they are plant-based chemicals and are available at much lower cost, often with fewer side effects, from the plants themselves.

One main difference is in the actual contents -- plants contain dozens of phytochemicals, whereas pharmaceuticals only extract a single one of the phytochemicals (usually the one found in greatest quantity in the plant) and ignore the rest.

Another difference is cost. Going to the plants themselves is much cheaper.

Another difference is dependency. Many medicinal plants are also culinary. They free you from the pharma industry, which is why the industry fights so hard to shut down natural health care.

Doses are lower in the plants, and the *may* take longer for effects to be seen (depends on what you are treating). But the long-term result is better health. Often the different phytochemicals work synergystically to increase the effects, or some of the chemicals may work to offset potential side effects.

Example: you can pay some # of dollars for capsaicin-cream, or you can use cayenne pepper and get the synergystic effects of half a dozen or so different types of capsaicin plus other phytochemicals in hot pepper. I did the latter when I successfully treated shingles 2 years ago with poultices and infusions made of anti-herpes plants (mints, sage, oregano, lemon balm) and cayenne pepper on the poultices. Worked like a charm: the mints to help my system fight the virus and the pepper provided amazing pain relief.

Naturopathic cures regularly fail to stand up to scientific scrutiny. But yet many naturopathic 'experts' have no qualms whatsoever about directing patients to discredited, debunked, and occasionally dangerous 'cures.' You often read claims of long-term health, but yet evidence for those claims is never present.

I recall going to a CAM (Complimentary and Alternative Medicine) conference about two years ago. It was aimed at encouraging med students to explore CAM as part of their future practices. The main speaker alternated between complaining about how doctors try to shut down CAM to protect their profit margins, and bragging about how he has tripled his yearly income since he shifted from an evidence-based medicine practice to a CAM practice. Similarly, the questions to the panel were an even mix of swipes at the pharmaceutical industry's greed and inquiries as to the profitability of CAM treatments.

What a good idea! not

Yes, some things can be made from plants, but there are many that cannot or that have the potential to seriously harm you.

Or see you either. :rofl: Apparently at one point in time you wrote something reeeeelly abrasive and obnoxious because you are on my ignore :rofl::rofl::rofl:

The triptans that are used now to treat migraines are not natural occurring compounds. I suffered with migraines for decades, and I tried all sorts of treatments - medicinal and natural. Nothing ever worked until I tried Maxalt, which is one of the triptans. And that was the third triptan that I had tried (after Imitrex and Zomig). I had to pay a lot for the Maxalt, and fortunately in recent years my migraines have lessened in intensity so that the Maxalt didn't make as much of a difference, but for several years it was a godsend.

But they have essentially the same effect as faith healers, which is basically none.

A friend was diagnosed with leukemia 18 years ago and sent home to die with a life expectancy of a few months at best. She went to a Naturalpath and eight years later, she was the minister at my wedding. Another ten years has passed and she is jetting off to London last I heard from her.
My husband was sent home to die with five weeks or less to live with advanced COPD. He was a six foot guy down to 98 lbs by the time they sent him home to die.
We also went all natural in his food and took the advice of a Naturalpath and bought him a flute to exercise his lungs and he lived another ten years.
He did not die from COPD..he died from a heart attack while he was in the hospital for a cold.
I am forever grateful for those extra years and the joy of our children and grandchildren that we got to share.
I was also under the care of one for my ankle that I sprained. The regular hospital had put too heavy a cast on my leg in the emergency room and it was tearing the sprain further causing my foot to swell something awful.
My Naturalpath made me a light weight cast and even made house visits for me. She did a lot of hot and cold treatments with Reiki as well and today I am fine.

Who would ever thunk that! :shrug:

Naturopathy, however, is full of wild claims of spectacular and extraordinarily drastic changes to health, all (of course) positive. There is certainly a grain or two of truth in their claims, but that is not cause to embrace all such claims. "Diet has an effect on general health" is not "condition X may be cured by consuming plant Y;" when so many like claims are made, it is more indicative of an industry built on placebo effect than of a branch of legitimate medicine. Any claim regarding treatment that lacks a sufficient evidence base (as opposed to an anecdote base) should be discounted until the treatment proven effective.

treatments that you bring to alternative care when judging others. The influence of placebo (that you despair)
is just as much at play in "normal medicine" as in other forms of medical care. And the evidence base that you
ask us to rely on may not always be as sound of a foundation as you indicate. Most of medicine now depends
on relief from symptoms through pharmacology, an industry that time and again puts profits before science and
safety.

I have never been to a naturopath. I do know many who had experienced help in doing so.
I will not judge their decision beyond noticing that they were healed of medical problems that
"legitimate medicine' failed to heal. And they did it without pharmacological support.

Isn't that a good thing?

I research the effectiveness of drugs my doctor prescribes me, and why I request an older/generic version if there is not a significant difference between that and the new and expensive version.

I actually do believe that CAM can have a place in medicine. It's a very tricky subject, though. On one hand, placebo effect is sometimes all you need, especially with pain management. On the other hand, sometimes pain is there for a reason, and encouraging CAM use as legitimate medicine unfortunately encourages people to use it to treat dangerous conditions for which there is absolutely no evidence of effectiveness. That case in Minnesota, for example, where a boy with cancer is now very likely to die because his CAM-obsessed mother has abducted him (and possibly fled the country) rather than submit to a court order to treat the boy with actual medicine. CAM often encourages mistrust of medicine as a means of directing profits to itself. But on the other hand, by pointing out that CAM is generally not effective beyond placebo, you turn people off from what might be a fine cure for their pain, placebo or not.

I tend to favor increased research into CAM, and for doctors to refer patients with pain to CAM practitioners as a part of a full-spectrum treatment, or in case medication fails. That way it encourages patients to see a qualified doctor, while still allowing for its use under the circumstances where its use is wisest.

Most SCAM (Supplements, complementary and alternative medicines) have not been tested scientifically, with appropriate controls and statistical analyses, or, if they have been tested, have been proven not to work at all.

Anecdotal evidence does not constitute proof. Chance alone may account for some of the "successes", also spontaneous remission and the placebo effect account for a great deal more.

and form the basis for many, if not most, pharmas.

Why do the pharmas test phytochemicals to begin with? Because anecdotal evidence demonstrates that plant-based medicine in many cases works. So they test the chemicals to see which ones and how they work. And then denounce the plant-based medicine that they base their medicines on.

I just did my pre-med chemistry final research presentation on phytochemicals in general, and looked at capsaicin specifically. Red hot chili peppers used among other things, in folk medicine, for topical pain relief. Contains multiple forms of capsaicin. Pharmas scientifically researched the form that makes up the largest portion and made topical creams from it. The way it works is it binds to calcium ion transport proteins in the cell membranes of heat/pain neurons that are sensitive to temperatures within a fairly narrow range. The binding opens the channels, allowing the calcium ions to flood into the neurons, depolarizing them and triggering a nerve impulse. The nonstop impulses flood the system, shutting it down and causing numbness. Except when I used cayenne pepper, it instead seemed to simply block other signals (such as pins and needles associated with shingles) from getting through. It was like wearing a heating pad set on the optimum temperature. Actually, it was more like my skin *was* the heating pad. No pain, just gentle warmth that also relieved the back ache I was starting to feel from trying to not let my shirt touch my shingles. The other big difference -- the cayenne pepper cost like 2 bucks and I still have plenty left should I have another shingles attack.

Another example of folk medicine turned pharma -- white willow bark chewed for thousands of years on 3 different continents for pain relief.

Back in the 1800s it was determined that one chemical it contained -- salicylic acid -- was the analgesic/anti-inflammatory agent. Problem was that, taken by itself salicylic acid causes severe stomach and intestinal bleeding in about 30% of the population. A researcher at a company called Bayer was looking for a way to help his father. Made up a compound called acetyl-salicylic acid that negated the bleeding in most people. Aka aspirin. And the pharmaceutical industry was born. Btw, you got the pain relief chewing willow bark without the stomach bleeding.

My veterinarian was astonished when my rescue puppy's ringworm suddenly disappeared. She wanted to know what I'd done, because after weeks of diligently applying the prescription medicine, nothing was changed. So I used my horse remedy for scratches -- essential lavender oil. It's a known antiseptic/antimicrobial. The patch of ringworm was gone within a week, and by the time he went in for his next round of puppy shots the area was completely haired in. Side benefit -- he smelled great.

The list of scientifically tested phytochemicals is enormous and growing. Plant-based medicine is real and science does not conflict with it. Only the pharmas fight it because its potential to cut into their profits.

Case in point; My son had fungus under his under big toe nail- he practices healthy habits, even when participating in sports. Foot doctor talks surgery and pills that have higher than normal risk for liver damage. I went to health food store. They gave me pine tar soap and tea tree oil. Told me to put it on 3x a day. Wash feet w/ soap after removing socks, apply oil. Last thing he said, was wear open toe shoes as much as possible and keep feet dry as much as possible.

He stuck with the regime on most days, and it cleared up in about two months. Completely gone at six.

Natuopathy is a very broad field, with many specialties. Naturopathy covers a wide range of disciplines, including nutrition, accupuncture, chiroptactic, chinese medicine, and many others. Many of these disciplines have been shown to be effective in scientific testing.

There are a lot of terrific naturopaths who are very professional and knowledgeable about their areas of specialty. So, when you say it's "full" of wild claims, exactly which of the many disciplines covered under naturopathy is claiming wild things? Additionally, are the people claiming it truly representative of that discipline?

It's a very broad field with lots of professional people, lots of well-meaning but misguided people, lots of complete quacks with no goal but profit, dozens of fields and subfields, and no accountability of any sort. A Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner may have spent years and years rigorously studying, and might see himself as the intellectual and professional equivalent of a Western doctor. He might also be a quack who studied part-time for a few months. And the average patient has no way of telling them apart. A holistic medicine practitioner might pore over peer-reviewed studies and chemical formulae. She might not. The average patient has no way of knowing. A Reiki practitioner might have a medical background, and might direct a patient who comes in with symptoms of a severe illness to an evidence-based doctor. He might have no background at all, and accomplish nothing but assuring the patient he is being cared for, as neither practitioner nor patient are aware the patient is dying a preventable death.

The CAM community has strongly resisted any attempt to bring CAM under the same sort of rigorous accountability that the evidence-based medicine community enforces. So long as CAM protects the dangerous and irresponsible with the same veneer of legitimacy it would claim for itself, it must be judged not by its best adherents but by its worst.

There are a lot of good people out there, and a lot of naturopathic techniques have been proven effective.

There are some quacks as well, as there are in western medicine. Do your research, ask for references, and get second opinions. The same thing you'd do with any issue involving your health.

in my state is to try to standardize and regulate it all. Trying to get on the licensing board, since, as an uppityperson and western medicine health care provider for 30 yrs and a LMP for over 10, I have definite ideas and opinions.

I don't care if someone has had a 1 week online course, just so long as they are upfront about their training and experience. And this is one of the problems with CAM things. By nature they resist putting into strict categories, but they need to have guidelines. We got animal massage therapy split off into its own specialty, but I'd like to see Reiki/energy work split off further from massage therapy.

Consumer education is VERY necessary and I've talked people out of coming to see me by educating them. Ethics and all is a big thing for me.

Nothing like a little good old fashioned blood-letting to cure your ills... ;)

... that would at the least be safer than a good lot of allopathic "medicine".

and in fact is based on principles that are completely and utterly incompatible with modern science. It ought be left in the same rubbish bin as Humour Theory and bloodletting.

It doesn't surprise me you'd post this. Not at all.

To the ignore list with your worthless, smarmy ass.

Good Riddance.

Homeopathy is Western. So is chiropractic (which unlike the others actually has a firm evidence base behind it). So is aromatherapy. So is herbalism. So is biofeedback. With the exceptions of most "energy"-based medicine, of traditional Indian methods, and of traditional Chinese methods, most alternative medicine is Western. More specifically, most popular alternative treatment methods are the remnants of long-disproven and intellectually bankrupt late-1800s/early-1900s Western theories of medicine. Were it not for the gullible, and those intending to make a quick buck off the gullible, most fields of alternative medicine would have died off decades ago.

Hucksters try to call evidence-based medicine "allopathic" or "Western" as a means of making it seem as if the difference is one of geography or focus, instead of the simple difference between science and bullshit.

has nothing to do with faith. It's all about placebos?

Sounds like a scam healer.

Both are the patient's belief in that which is not true. Which may have benefit, but selling it as real is ethically dubious.

Maybe she'll notice if I'm deficient somewhere. I've never heard of Buteyko methods. I'll look it up. I'm willing to try anything.

Thank you. :hi:

It's very good at some things, not so good at others. Same with natural medicine.

So when you are in an emergency, you call an ambulance. But when you are *not* in an emergency, there is no reason not to consider *everything* that is available and choose what works best.

"Well, it's not supposed to replace science. They're good for different things."
"Well, you can't really prove they don't work for some people. I know people who get a lot of benefit."
"The science is just biased. Frankly, I suspect they have an agenda."
"Even if it doesn't work, it gives people comfort, so what's the harm?"
"I think we should present the controversy and let people decide what's best for them."
"There's plenty of evidence in favor of it. Why, look at this dubiously-sourced study from a vanity journal."
"Really, it and science are just two sides of the same coin. They're both after the same thing."
"Ah, no, you're just looking at the nuts. No true believer/practitioner would say or do such a thing."

All just endless and stale justifications for a field polluted with ignorance and quackery, and generally hostile to any serious and systematic attempts to prove or disprove its claims scientifically. Until CAM excises the quacks and imposes an evidence-based standard, it cannot be seriously compared to evidence-based medicine.

(I do not like the term 'Western medicine'; the West has many native branches of CAM. Aromatherapy, biofeedback, herbalism and homeopathy are all Western in origin and Western in practice. Using the term 'Western medicine' implies the difference between evidence-based medicine and CAM is simply one of regional cultural preference, which is not the case at all.)

(aka marinol.) Not only is it too potent for him to function but it costs 250 bucks per pill.

So his doc kindly gives him weed.

Her dad has a horribly compromised GI tract. I'm glad I didn't ask for their names.

The only cure I've ever heard of for migraine's is cranial sacral therapy.

It might be worth checking out.

Big Pharma just plain sucks for many, not necessarily all.

Doesn't work at all for me but I've got a big bad attitude about it.

Another thing I've never heard of! LOL I will definately check it out.

Weed is great for many things, but the migraine isn't one of them. LOL

I guess it just seems greedy to me that they're profiting big time for my suffering. My awful headaches are helping buy some guy a yacht! :grr:

Thanks for your advise and I will look up that therapy! :hi:

My massage therapist included it in one treatment, and my peripheral neuropathy pain was MUCH improved for the next week. Some people regard it as quackery, but I've been seeing him for some time, and this one time he includes this technique and I have a marked improvement.

A friend who has migraines is finding that Gabapentin (aka, Neurontin) is helping to prevent them. A prescription med, originally for seizures. I take it for my nerve pain -- can make one sleepy initially, but that goes away after a week. If your GP runs out of ideas on migraines, find a neurologist. (Mine is supportive of alternative therapies, like acupuncture and whatnot.)

I'm just irritated because that seems like a lot to me, but it's not like my headaches are life threatening and I know there are cancer and HIV drugs that are way more expensive. Even my son has $200+ for his medications!

I'm sure there are plenty of people here at DU way worse off than me!

It works and only costs a fraction of what you'd expect.

Those drugs have been around for a while and are hardly new, experimental medication.

I think I take the same meds and they do work.

One of the things that really needs to be addressed in all the discussions about health care is what can be done to bring down the costs of health care. It seems ridiculous that one pill should cost $22. It's not like it's made from the saliva of a rare endangered newt that only lives in Patagonia.


Hope you're feeling better. Before I got the migraine meds I pretty much did the same as you - tranquilizers and ibuprophen with an ice pack in a dark room. Ugh.

It's gonna take some time to get the lungs functioning properly again.

No headache right now, but I an count on it every month. Really tough with 2 small kids around! Not like I can sleep then and it's sheer torture. The pills made it so I couldn't drive or anything, but at least the pain and nausea was gone.

It's sad that my pain relief is so expensive, but if I were a man and couldn't get it up - cheap solution! LOL

Mine were directly linked to my monthly cycle. When I finally persuaded a doctor to do a hysterectomy my migraines went away.

You might see if hormone therapy would help or try one of the new birth control regimens that reduce the number of periods a year. Those were not available when I had my operation or I might have tried them, though given my family medical history they would have been contraindicated.

It took me 25 years to find a doctor who would take my migraines seriously and pay attention to my observations of the correlation to my cycle. Even then, I may not have been able to talk them into the hysterectomy I wanted at age 25 if I had not begun perimenopausal symptoms that made it impossible to function.

...hormone withdrawl in my case. Doctors are much more open now to the idea of migraines correlating to womens' cycles - at least in my experience. Is this recent? A hystorectomy seems drastic although I had my former doctor (female also and now retired) tell me that she felt it would be beneficial for all women to have a complete hystorectomy and double mastectomy (sp?) once they were around 40 to lengthen their lives. That seemed pretty extreme to me especially coming from a doctor, but she was a pragmatic person and the facts are on her side especially for a woman predisposed to cancer.

I'm iffy on the idea of hormone treatment because my mother had a stroke at 29 while on the pill. I know the dosages are lower now, but it still makes me nervous since I'm a few years north of 29 at this point. LOL

Blew me off - ironic since it was the only female doctor I ever went to. She pretty much told me to suck it and suffer with my symptoms.

So for years I suffered with monthly migraines as well as dysmenorrhea. By my mid-forties the combination became debilitating and the migraines increased to bi-monthly and lasted for days at a time. I finally talked it over with my GP and he found a good GYN who was very good.

We tried a couple of things that made no improvement so when on my 50th birthday and our 25th anniversary I got the full whammy of migraine and everything else at once, I called and set up the hysterectomy. Since hormone variation was the problem, he took out the ovaries as well as the uterus. I am on a hormone patch but I am thinking of going off of that.

It has been heaven since - the only times I've gotten a migraine was when using the highly inferior generic patches. So I pay extra for the real deal for now.

Yes, I can see how at your age and with your family history, hormones might be a problem, but you might talk to your doctor about them. I haven't kept up with the research, but it has got to be better than the choices I had thirty years ago when I developed problems because of them.

Once I get my blood work done, I'll talk to my doc about what is available for my problem.

Are you getting off the patch because of the increased risks or you just don't like it? Will you use something else? That's a question for the future for me, I'm sure!

Thank you for the advise and for sharing your story. :toast:

I'm thinking about getting off the patch because there are slight risks associated with them. Plus, they really are supposed to be a temporary aid during menopause and I've been on them for almost ten years.

But without the patch I will have no hormones at all so that can lead to other problems. :shrug:

I'm going in for shoulder surgery next week and after that I will have a talk with my GP about all my medications and decide about the patch.

A hysterectomy will get rid of your uterus, leaving your ovaries to continue doing the hormone thing.

I had near migraines associated with my hormonal cycle for yrs. Finally figured it out and that I'd take ibuprofen for 2 days, then my menses would start. A couple sibs have recently told me they have had this problem also, with full visual migraine problems, and my mom also had this.

I did estrogen replacement for a couple months once, after an injury threw my hot flashes into hyperdrive. I had over 40 in 24 hours, was getting tired. HRT stopped them, then when my whiplash healed, I stopped HRT 2 months later.

Sometimes meds are necessary, rather like which causes less harm. But it is best to take them only if you need them. Having a mom having a stroke at 29 is a warning, but it depends on other risk factors also.

Good luck to you.

and for sharing your experiences.

I'm smiling at all the support I've gotten from DU!

Works wonders for some people.

as well as it's ability to give me the giggles and munchies. But with the breathing problems I'm having right now it's not possible and it's not terribly effective on migraines in my experience. Also, not something I do around my children.

:smoke:

Thanks for the suggestion!

You don't have to smoke.

Don't know why I've never baked anything...besides myself. LOL But vaporizors are a new trend, right? Something to think about to ease what I think is the one bad side effect of it.

Nothing else worked, including the narcotics his doctor tried to get him to take.

And sometimes I forget about it all together!

Female problems. :blush: But I can't use it as I'd like to now. Wish it were legal!

And it grows like a weed!

they come in packets of nine pills (these are the 100mg, but the 50s are the same price!).

I thought that was bad (and it is) until I saw what my father was paying for his chemo. $4,000 for one 15 minute IV twice a week, and later something like $6,000 a month for a derivative of that ancient drug thalidomide.

How much was thalidomide when it was being given out to pregnant housewives for tension and anxiety? I bet it wasn't five or six grand a month.

The cost of meds is preposterous. It's shocking beyond words.

ON EDIT:

BTW, Imitrex is finally available as a generic, but it's not much cheaper.

In the name of precision, this is what I pay for nine Imitrex: $264.00, but that includes overnight FedEx. Works out to approximately 26 bucks per pill, I think.

Either way, it sucks.

I got the prescription back and might get them in the future. I'm sure I'll be wishing I had them when the next migraine hits! $22 is too much and $4-6K is crazy! It seems like they're taking advantage of people's pain particularly when it's something they can't live without - like chemo.

I hope your father is okay. :hug:

Maybe if Imitrex didn't pay their execs so much and spend so much advertising, they could charge less. I wonder how much they make on those pills? It makes me sad.

were upwards of 50k per DOSE. That doesn't include the costs to administer them, the testing, etc. Twice a week, for over a year.

It was his running out of money that killed him. Not his cancer. With treatments he could have gone another 3 of 4 years.

and indeed these drugs cost that only in America.

Being in this industry I can say there are multiple reasons. Some are even reasonable. Some of course are not.

You want those drugs tested right? Will you cut the company slack if they release the drug after only testing for 8 years when after 10 the cumulative effect causes cancer? Or do you want them to test for 10 before getting any revenue? Twelve?

The typical pharma gross margin is 75%. Some variety of course, and less in generics. The NET margin is much lower, but yep it's priced to maximize profit, and especially as the US market is the only major one that does not have some kind of price control or centralized negotiations.

You expect perfect and error free production, right? The bureaucracy and expense that goes into all those double checks and validations and verifications is mind-boggling to those who have not worked in FDA-regulated companies. The people who do that don't work for free. The machinery that produces these products is incredibly complex and expensive, and can often only be amortized over a small product range (you can't just make Lipitor in the blender one day and then Plavix the next, let alone smaller market drugs)

It's absolutely true that pharma companies, of any size, spend huge amounts on R&D, for many years before they make any $$ and on many projects that NEVER make $$. However it's also true that every financial report for a non-generic pharma company I've ever seen spends at least twice and often as much as four times that on sales and marketing. Having multiple customers instead of one and being allowed to advertise direct to consumers is expensive, and stupid. But true. You're paying for those ads and all those sales people too.

Short answer? Single payer, and negotiated price controls by the Feds before that, would be a big help as would ending direct advertising if we could get past the 1A angle, but safe consistent drugs will never be cheap unless they are taken by many millions of people for many years.

I do medical transcription and I know that drug reps bring in free lunches or breakfast for the practices who are my clients constantly. Seems like a big waste of money to me....

Or how about this?

My ex-husband works on the road crew for an internationally famous rock group. A few years ago, a big pharma company wanted to throw a big shindig at a resort for the upper echelons of management to celebrate the FDA approval of their brand new drug. They rented out an entire resort for a weekend, had this big polo tournament and other events going on, not too mention food and drink.

I won't mention the name of the drug, big pharma company or band, but the fee paid to the band for performing a 90-minute set was well over $100,000.

Read that again .... THAT WAS JUST THE FEE PAID TO THE BAND FOR PERFORMING A SHOW.

Add on top of that all the other expenses to rent out this resort, etc. and that's one expensive party.

Frankly, THAT kind of stuff pisses me off. It pissed the crew off, too. My ex said they were all muttering to each other, "No wonder drugs are so expensive".

They can afford to do that because drugs are so expensive. Drugs are expensive because drug manufacturers hold effective monopolies over the products they produce, and because their market is captive (as failure to purchase the product will result in worsened health, inferior quality of life, or death). They can more or less charge whatever the fuck they want, and they will get paid.

It's like the situation with sports and athlete salaries. It's not that ticket prices are high because players make millions. It's that players make millions because ticket prices are high.

when I had insurance I was using migranal and it cost $35/8 bottles. I asked once and learned the price w/o is closer to $350. I am so sorry for anyone that has migraines -mine started when I was 12 and I have struggled to find ways to prevent them and ease them once they are fullblown.

I no longer have insurance and tiptoe around diet and activities trying to prevent them. You are correct, there is no way to explain the joy once the headache is gone

same price range. It's inhuman, suffer unbearable pain or pay a small fortune.

It's like having a gun put to your head: "Pay up or suffer beyond belief."

I don't think I can swing $200 right now. I need to buy them like 2 at a time. LOL

as they aren't packaged in a blister pack.

twice as many headaches cured for the same amount of money.

For whatever reason, the same number of pills cost the same amount regardless of the mg, and this was true for Celexa when I was on that.

90 20 mg Celexa cost the same as 90 40mg Celexa cost.

So it would be madness not to just get the 40s and cut them in half.

Those were astronomically expensive and I often needed two doses. And, to top it off, they hurt like a bitch. As I'm sure you know, the pain is so debilitating that you are forced to pay exorbitant amounts of money just to make it stop.

i take vicoprofen for mine. on friday i'm having an mri over my headaches. i'm at about the same age that my uncle had his aneurysm.

I hope your test shows you're normal. Well, as normal as any of us here. :bounce:

i have an autoimmune disorder called ankylosing spondylitis- which is mostly about a painful & slowly progressing fusion of the spine, but it also causes a range of associated problems- this is probably one of those times.

it can be very east blame everything about my health on the AS, and it usually IS a part of the reason

but-
what you don't know CAN kill you

onset of severe migraines and an uncle who had a brain aneurysm around the same age aren't reason enough to warrant an mri on a disabled serf.

what a country.

And I wish you good health in the future!

Our system is bass-ackwards!

time she was in the "donut hole" so she had to pay the who thing herself. She was fortunate in that she had the means to pay for it, but was pissed off anyway because she knew that a lot of people DIDN'T have the funds to pay for something like that.

Not to mention the fact that she thought $900 for 30 pills was fucking ridiculous!

supervising two small children?

I could take the medication with the kids, but I wouldn't drive on it.

The migraine itself is way worse with regard to caring for children then either pot or the drug in question.

My wife takes Treximet to combat migraine headaches...'script was $160 for nine of those tablets.

was with Slo-bin which is an ingested steroid and plain old alburterol through a nebulizer. Doing it that way get's rid of the inhalant compound that just collected in my lungs and then came out as tiny crystal chuncks.

Both are now Generic and you should be able to get a months supply for under 100 bucks for both.

And Pulmicort for 2 weeks plus an oral steroid.

Albuterol (or ProAir) isn't bad, but my son is on Flovent and Singulair which are expensive. Singulair is just over $100 per month, but it's kept him from having a bad episode for well over a year now. (Hospitalized 3 times prior to that with asthma related respiratory distress.)

I'm glad you found things that help you! Not being able to breath is scary!

after he was diagnosed with medium-level small airway inflammatory disease (seasonal disease, similar to athsma and COPD in humans).

Problem is that albuterol in horses at least loses effectiveness over time, so they can end up with an incredibly expensive habit.

The only alternative was a steroid breathing inhaler, which in horses is excrutiatingly expensive and a daily habit for life, which creates real practical issues unless you're a bazillionaire.

I did some research and found an equine herb company founded by the former head of the British equivalent of USDA. I tried her herb blend on him -- expensive, but not really more than the albuterol.

The difference was that instead of it losing effectiveness over time, it increased in effectiveness. Some of the constituents are chemicals needed to repair tissues, some that soothe mucous membranes (marshmallow contains chemicals that thin out the mucous), some were anti-inflammatories.

Anyway, after several years on the the herbs, I was able to bring him home where he has a very open, fresh-air barn that is new (so no mold or mildew). He's been drug and herb-free now for several years. He hasn't coughed or heaved at all this year. Had a couple short, mild bouts last spring. None for several years before that.

This is at an age when it normally would have progressed to full-blown heaves and he would have been facing euthanasia.

Big Pharma works just as hard for it's political influence. Big Oil shouldn't have all the fun.

Oil is produced by many companies around the world and sold in many markets. It is completely fungible, so it sells for the same amount no matter who pumps it in what country, and no matter who buys it in what country.

Non-generic drugs are of course not, as they are intellectual property.

and not people with commercial interests."

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/03/news/economy/energy_manipulation_hearing/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories

and Obama promised to fix it:

Obama calls for 'Enron Loophole' to be closed

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama proposed Sunday that Congress close the so-called "Enron Loophole" that Democrats blame for contributing to high gasoline prices.

Obama made the proposal just as his chief spokesman blasted former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, a close friend and campaign adviser to Republican presidential contender John McCain, who Democrats say created the loophole in 2000.

...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5851138.html

i get 30 generics for $130 thru progressiverx.com -- but, i think generic imitrex should be available in the US now.

The price has not gone down much yet, since it is newly generic. The price will continue to lessen over time, however as other drug companies start to manufacture sumatriptan. There is a huge market for it.

Your pharmacist does not necessarily have to fill the script for 9 pills. He/she could fill it for a lesser amount. You also might consider shopping around for a better price at other pharmacies. They will still be expensive, but another pharmacy may charge you less per pill.

There is an OTC product made by Well Patch; I think it's just called Migraine Patch. It's just a cooling herbal patch you place on your forehead. It can be somewhat helpful in the absence of your medications.
Cost should be under $10.00.

Good luck, fellow migraine sufferer. :toast:

Also, I'll check on that migraine patch.

Thanks for the support and info! :toast:

Different pharmacies may charge less. I get one med at Costco because it's cheaper there -- and in this state, you don't have to be a member to have a prescription filled there.

They may also fill it for fewer pills than the 9 prescribed, so you don't have to pay for it all at once.

that you are talking about. Glaxo has found away to make their patent last practically forever - its supposed to be 17 years but they "reformulated" it so they got an extra 5 years. And they came up with their own generic which costs about $10 less than the other one.

I hate Glaxo Wellstone and their infinite greed, which they satisfy at the patients expense.

google "generic imitrex" or "generic sumatriptan"

here's just one vendor: http://www.globaldrugsdirect.com/DrugMoreInfo1522.aspx

it's even cheaper if you're willing to get it overseas.


the price is still nuts compared to how much it costs to make or even to justify the research that went into it. it's TOTALLY based on the fact that migraineurs WILL PAY to stop the pain. it's criminal, if you ask me.

at least I am pretty sure that's the generic, most pharmacies automatically give you the generic if it's available. still. I feel for ya, migraines are miserable, and Imitrex is crazy expensive. I was so excited when something that worked finally came out 15 years ago (have had the migraine curse for 25+ years) and even more excited when it went to generic last fall. unfortunately it is still pricey, and only a couple bucks cheaper per tablet at Walgreen but much cheaper at my local grocer, QFC, at $165 for 9, so transferred my rx. (that's only a month's worth for me, lol, and no insurance, so it is hard but otherwise I lose money by not being able to work if I don't have them).

I am so sorry you are living with such indescribable pain, I do hope you find some relief. (((((big hug))))

If you get the nausea along with it I recommend taking some Dramamine a few minutes before so you don't end up "losing" literally down the drain.

He had tried all the older meds with no luck and had several life threatening episodes, both from the illness and from various meds going toxic on him. The fancy new one is working well and after a year he's not having any life threatening side effects. Insurance does not cover it as it is being used "off label" and is considered experimental for his condition, in spite of the fact the medical community has been prescribing it this way for at least 3 years. A generic is not yet available and the manufacturer is finally covering uncle under their charity program - though we did have to scrounge up the money for the first 11 months.


I have mixed feelings about it. Thank goodness someone thought the profit motive was enough to put the effort into developing this medicine. Uncle is alive and functional thanks to it. And we are all grateful to live someplace where the medicine can be obtained. On the other hand, I am not happy with the way the handful of people who own the majority of big Pharm stocks greed has sucked the absolute life out of obtainable medical care for a good number of Americans.

:crazy:

it stopped my migraines quite suddenly. Not sure if that would be more cost-effective for you but it's something to consider. My attacks were 2-6 times per month and debilitating.

All of our kids and I have pretty bad asthma--it sounds like you need more preventive treatment. All of that stuff really adds up, especially during allergy/pneumonia season, yikes!

so my treatment is just starting, too. I think you're right and I may need a maintenance medication. I guess we'll see soon.

After the 3rd hospitalization, my son's docs got a lot more aggresive with him and he hasn't had a bad episode in a long while. Thank GOD! The worst episode he had asthma-related pnemonia at 2-years-old. Our local hospital has a peds ER, but not a peds ICU which is what the ER doc wanted for him overnight so we had to have him transported by ambulance 20 minutes to Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital ICU. The poor kid was so scared and sick. I remember the first doc we saw there couldn't understand why he was crying. Huh? That guy was lucky I didn't smack him! I stayed with my baby, of course and it was pretty uncomfortable for both of us. Oh...and I was 8 months pregnant at the time! He slept very little in that room and I think I got maybe an hour sitting up, leaning on his crib/bed. Nothing more pathetic than a sick kid although he was probably the healthiest one in that ICU. :-(

OMG, I am so grateful for them to be older now. Our youngest son and youngest daughter were the most worrisome--we spent a lot of time at UVA's hospital, unfortunately. Crying is a normal reaction to panic, because they can't freaking breathe! I know the feeling because when I get that way it kinda scares me too (blue lips, numb lips and fingers, etc.).

Now they are older and I'm more experienced, we KNOW what to do--we have the action plans on the fridge and they are tested and proven to work. They all know their triggers and their teachers know to not ignore them. But I really don't miss those times of staying up all night with a baby on my chest, praying that he/she would get enough O2 with the shallow breathing and hoping that we were making the right decisions. Those were some awfully long nights, ugh.

And bring pneumonia into that mix...one year we actually pulled the youngest ds out of school the rest of the year as he was just not getting better and missing so much school. I homeschooled him and we worked on his immune system/triggers at the allergists and getting the asthma under control at the pediatric pulmo group. That was one of the best things we ever did for him, because after that year he didn't seem to catch so much and his asthma was definitely 'in the green zone.'

We had a scary episode 2 Christmas Eve's ago - 2006. We got back from my parents' home, put the boys to bed (we have 2) and played Santa. Around 11:30 or so I heard Tony crying and when I went up he was coughing and drooling - not a good sign. I ran him down and we tried to calm him to give him meds, but he was freaking out. I had to call 911 and then we held him down to give him puffs of albuterol. He came out of it after a minute or 2 that seemed like FOREVER! The ambulance arrived and checked his oxygen level which was about normal by then. We didn't send him to the hospital, but kept him with us the rest of the night. He was well enough about an hour later to say, "Is that a scooter in there?" BUSTED! We played it off and he was too young then to ask too many questions. LOL Oh..and 3 month old brother sleeping in cradle nearby never even woke up! He has no allergies and no breathing problems. Go figure.

It's so scary especially when they're not with you. Tony started preschool this year and I was nervous, but his medication works and/or he's getting better because he was hardly sick at all! He has food allergies as well just to add to the fun. His egg allergy keeps him from the flu shot so that's always a concern. He hasn't really wheezed bad since November 2007! I gave him some puffs when he had colds this winter, but it was very mild. He did flovent during the school year - which just ended for him and we're weaning him from it for the summer per our doc's suggestion. We do have an action plan, but he's only had 1 bad episode since it was set up. We keep steroid on hand for him and have the expected rescue inhalers and nebulizer.

Good luck with your kids! It's the hardest thing when they're sick.

would have cost me over ***$400***. I went to the walkin clinic at CVS----which is wonderful, BTW, seen/treated/out the door within 20 minutes and paid only a $10 co-pay---for a sinus infection. When I went to the counter to get my prescriptions the pharmacist rang up $100.
Not being used to paying that much when I use my insurance, I asked how much everything would have been without it..14 Levaquin pills = $220 and the Nasonex was over $200, also!

...maybe we all could afford to buy their medicine!

My kids love that commercial for some reason. Subliminal messages?

Only I don't have insurance so I pay out of pocket for everything. Thankfully one of my meds (which I take to help prevent migraines) just went generic so it now costs $79 for a 30 day supply instead of $231. But the abortive meds are still brand name only so they're through the roof. $21.50/pill - almost enough to give me a migraine. :banghead:

Seriously. Google it. The possible side effects are less serious than those from Tylenol. I get 4 shots between my eyebrows and two on my temples, which STOPS all headaches completely. The cost is about $200, but it lasts for at least six months, sometimes eight. I've been doing this for ten years and have been completely headache and migraine free the entire time; a huge change from all day headaches and migraines at least twice a month.

I've never heard of that method. I'll have to check it out!

But she's alive.

It nearly eradicated them and I think it's fairly inexpensive. You have to wean yourself off the drug gradually, but after taking them for 3 or 4 years I did that and never have had a migraine again. You might look into that.

My wife requires Amerge to stop the migraine pain and its pricey too.

It worked great! I got really dizzy the first time I took it, but after that, it worked in about an hour and completely knocked out the migraine - even if I took it when it was raging bad. (I know some drugs you have to catch it when it's coming.) I wouldn't drive with it or anything because I felt a little medicine-head, but still not as bad as those headaches!

All these drugs - they're probably all the same thing just under different names so they can keep them expensive!

I have no migraine meds to take for it because I have no health insurance and I can't afford it. This is the American Health Care System. You call in sick to your low paying, no benefits contract job because you can't afford the meds for an easily treatable condition.

You shouldn't have to suffer when there are cures available for your pain. Nobody should suffer.

Sending good vibes your way that your head will feel better SOON! :pals:

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My son with asthma is allergic to dairy (and eggs and nuts). Our doc even commented that he'll probably be healthier than all of us by keeping away from dairy!

It's not a bad idea and easier than giving up caffiene which is the first thing they tell you to get rid of for every ailment.

and you can do it, but have a few days to just chill and sleep a lot.

Also, regarding the whole connection with mucus and dairy, docs are recommending that parents avoid dairy because of ear infections. They, also, are caused (well, the common one, I should add) by excess mucus.

If you Google "generic Imitrex" you can find a number of sites where the price is as low as $80 for ten. Still not cheap but greater than a 50% savings over the name brand.

If the price drops any lower, we can expect Glaxo-Smith-Kline to request that the FDA yank it from the market so that they can sell a new name brand drug. GSK persuaded the FDA to ban ergots, which are cheap and which work in a similar way, so that their market share of migraine meds would increase.

:eyes:

If I don't have the money for the 9 they want to sell me, then it really doesn't matter what the cost per year is, now does it?

My wife's medication costs $300 a month. When she was finishing school her doctor got her enough samples to last her until she finished school and got a better job. Fortunately her new insurance at her new job paid for the medication. Of course it is also possible that your insurance company would pay if your doctor filed any requested waivers. None of that makes for a good rant though.

David

...and it's not an emergency. Sorry, but you're in the minority thinking this is an unreasonable rant. I already pay more than $200 per month for my son's prescriptions and we own our own business so we pay for our healthcare on our own. Dropping another $200 isn't possible right now.

She told me when she gave the prescription that insurance probably wouldn't cover and told them they could substitute. They told me that price was the cheapest comparable med. There's been lots of discussion on here about other options from people that are helpful and supportive ie HUMAN, but that doesn't make for insulting people you know nothing about.

I'm sorry for your situation, I hope you find a resolution. I do not however find the price of the medication outrageous given the frequency with which you have to take it, given the fact that you are debilitated without it I would actually guess that it would be more cost effective for you to get the medication as opposed to having neither you or your husband be able to work. Good luck.

David

It's probably just me - it's late here and I really should go to bed! LOL

I should be nicer to you anyway because my dad is a firefighter. :toast:

I really do hope you find a good resolution. I'll ask the EMS secretary for suggestions she has horrible migraines very frequently, she misses work at least once every two weeks.

David

that's how i judge things.

But you can't get blood from a stone. (Is that how the saying goes? It's late.)

I can't buy what I can't afford whether or not it gives me relief. How does one put a monetary value on pain relief? I can probably come up with some money for the pills, especially if I can find them cheaper, but no telling if a migraine will show up before the $200 does.

Pain relief shouldn't be a privlidge. I think that's why so many people have posted to this thread. HEALTH shouldn't be about money.

what is it's name? why does it cost $22?

help me out here...