DRUG COST SKYROCKETS

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but my cat, Buddy, has glaucoma in both eyes. Along with two types of eye drops, he takes the human medicine methazolomide twice a day. I fill his prescription at a regular pharmacy and have for several years now. I would get 100 pills for around $35 - not too bad for something that helps Buddy. A couple of weeks ago I went to refill Buddy's prescription and the charge was $129!!! Of course I brought it to the attention of the pharmacist that this must be a mistake. After some research she told me that there had been two companies making the drug, but one had stopped making it recently. The other company has taken this opportunity to nearly quadruple the charge for this very commonly used medicine.

The pharmacist told me I should check the pharmacies at the "big box" stores as their pharmacies don't mark up the meds as much as other pharmacies. I called around and the cheapest I could find the medicine was $110. Luckily I checked with Buddy's eye doctor's office and they still has some of the methazolomide at the old price and I was able to pick up another bottle of 100. That will carry me to February. Then what? I don't know.

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned drug company names. That's because I'm still not sure which company it is that has raised their prices so precipitously. Sandoz made the one that Buddy has been taking and I'm assuming that's the company that has ceased making it. It was a generic and I guess they just weren't making enough money off of it.

I will be continuing my research and when I find out the name of the drug company that has raised the price, I'll be sure to put it here on the blog. I will also be contacting the company about this issue. It's mostly older folks who take this drug, the least able in our society of absorbing additional costs like this. Even if you have insurance, your cost will go up. And if you don't . . .