Propecia Prices and Pharmacy Costs

[Smoothy]

FYI--

I just got my Propecia filled at Costco today and for 3 months (90 days) is coast $151 which is better than 99% of others.

 

The reason that pharmacies have different prices that range largely for high demand products like Propecia and Viagra is not the pharmaceutical companies but the pharmacies or pharmacy chains and the wholesalers.

The way it works is most of the wholesaler (there are 3 major ones) get all the drugs for the same price fromt he Pharmacuetical companies which is called AWP (avg wholesale price). The prices are usually 25-35% lower than the consumer sees.

After the wholesalers get the drugs, then they sell to the pharmacies and chain stores. It is American business-- they mark up a profit from what they bought it for from the Pharma companies. The higher demand products have more premium profits built in than lower demand ones. However, the bigger the chain (like Costco), and the more product purchased, then the cheaper price they get from the wholesaler-- once again America supply and demand business. Then when the pharmacy gets the drugs from the wholesalers, they mark up a profit to sell to the customer. (so that is 2 additional mark ups after the pharmaceutical company sells the drug)-- You never hear about this chain of profit after it leaves the company in goverment or politics-- you just hear about how high drug prices are and the Pharmaceutical companies take the heat.

Thus this is why drugs cost vary with different pharmacies and how drugs get marked up with each stage of the chain.

[Smoothy]

FYI--

I just got my Propecia filled at Costco today and for 3 months (90 days) is coast $151 which is better than 99% of others.

 

The reason that pharmacies have different prices that range largely for high demand products like Propecia and Viagra is not the pharmaceutical companies but the pharmacies or pharmacy chains and the wholesalers.

The way it works is most of the wholesaler (there are 3 major ones) get all the drugs for the same price fromt he Pharmacuetical companies which is called AWP (avg wholesale price). The prices are usually 25-35% lower than the consumer sees.

After the wholesalers get the drugs, then they sell to the pharmacies and chain stores. It is American business-- they mark up a profit from what they bought it for from the Pharma companies. The higher demand products have more premium profits built in than lower demand ones. However, the bigger the chain (like Costco), and the more product purchased, then the cheaper price they get from the wholesaler-- once again America supply and demand business. Then when the pharmacy gets the drugs from the wholesalers, they mark up a profit to sell to the customer. (so that is 2 additional mark ups after the pharmaceutical company sells the drug)-- You never hear about this chain of profit after it leaves the company in goverment or politics-- you just hear about how high drug prices are and the Pharmaceutical companies take the heat.

Thus this is why drugs cost vary with different pharmacies and how drugs get marked up with each stage of the chain.

[Kez]

I'm sure this has been dealt with somewhere, but do you know how prices for Proscar compare with Canada? When I had my HT there I picked up a year's supply with a prescription from my surgeon, and it seemed a good price.

[JacobS]

Smoothy- Can you please elaborate on your routine for shocking the system after prolonged use of Propecia? How long have you been using propecia effectively?

 

Jacob

[Smoothy]

This "shocking the sytem" is just what I have been doing for 7 years. Every 4-6 months, I get off propecia for 3-4 weeks to help my system not get tolerance to the drug then I get back on the drug once a day. Also, every couple of months, I take propecia 2x a day for a week or two to also shock the system and keep from tolerance. This has worked, except for this past month when I stopped for 4 weeks, I had a little shedding--not much but a little that I've never had when I stopped, but when I started back it stopped.