Cold-sore cream: $34 in Canada, $2,532 in U.S. [View all]

[Newsjock]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Jim Makichuk bought a 5-gram tube of Zovirax, a prescription cold-sore cream, a few years ago in Canada for $34.65. That was the over-the-counter price; no insurance involved. He recently purchased a fresh 5-gram tube from a Kaiser Permanente pharmacy in Los Angeles. It cost him $95, or nearly three times as much as the Canadian price — with insurance.

But that's not what raised Makichuk's eyebrows. What surprised him was a report Kaiser sent him on prescriptions he filled in January. There was the tube of Zovirax, and there was the $95 payment Makichuk made. And beside that was a listing for what Kaiser paid for the cream: $2,532.80.

... Laurie Little, a Valeant spokeswoman, said the cost of the cream "takes into account many factors, the cost of the active and inactive ingredients, the manufacturing process, the packaging and its related process, as well as the distribution and a myriad of other expenses."

... As for why the Zovirax cream available in Canada is so cheap, that's simple: It's manufactured in Britain, not the U.S., and British law requires that drug prices be reasonable. So does Canadian law.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20150306-column.html