I am extremely bitter right now. I went to pick up my prescriptions today, and found out that my Vyvanse has risen in price. Up until now, it’s varied from $35 for a month’s supply. Now, all of a sudden, it’s $80 for a month’s supply. For a sense of scale, all of my other medications are $10 each (sometimes less) to fill.
I did some research to try and figure out why they decided to more than double the price. The short answer: because they can. There are minimal government restrictions on the pharmaceutical industry in terms of their pricing, so they can charge whatever they want. In addition, Medicare/Medicaid is legally restricted from trying to negotiate prices. Another huge factor is that the pharmaceutical industry is monopolized, with many medications often being distributed by only one company.
And then there’s this little thing called “evergreening”. This is when a company slightly changes the formula of the medication, releases it as “new”, discontinues the old treatment, and then charges more for the “new” product that is effectively identical.
So, I suppose what I’m getting at is that the cost of one of my medications (one that I need to be able to function and stay awake), more than doubled in price for absolutely no reason other than some company wanted more money.
A lot of people aren’t aware of this, so please reblog if you feel so inclined.