[TrueGeek]

I spend $900 a month on an anti-seizure drug. At least, until I hit my $6,500 deductible.

The company that makes it is publicly traded so I looked up their financials. The drug is a generic and the patent expired decades ago. Very little is spent on “R&D”. Almost all of their money goes to “advertising”.

[rawgabbit]

Does https://costplusdrugs.com have your medication?

[TrueGeek]

Not yet. I signed up for their alerts though and they’re adding new ones pretty quickly.

[dragonsky]

Did you happen to find if the same drug is available as a generic?

I use a daily medication. Every time I got to get t he script filled I get asked if I want the brand name or the generic. There is a two or three times price difference, why would I ever get the brand name?

[TrueGeek]

Oh yeah, I definitely checked. There are two companies that make it. Both are priced exactly the same though.

[ProjectArcturis]

Yeah. This is regulatory arbitrage. It costs a lot to get certified to produce a medication (which is necessary, or else some company will cut corners and produce a contaminated drug). For drugs with small patient populations, it doesn't make sense to pay for that certification and then sell it cheaply. So the drug ends up being made by only a few manufacturers and the price stays high even though it's a generic. I don't know what a better solution is.

[TrueGeek]

I’d buy that argument if their balance sheet didn’t show the vast majority of their budget going to advertising and if companies like CostPlusDrugs weren’t able to do it for pennies.

[ProjectArcturis]

What company are you talking about? What drug? If CostPlusDrugs can do it for pennies, why not buy from them?