why is ciprodex so expensive?

Discussion in 'Alcon' started by Anonymous, Oct 27, 2004 at 10:12 PM.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    $189 at walgreens in dallas, tx is what they tried to charge me. I am currently without insurance or job, first the hospital visit was over $300 and now this. So its either fix my ear or pay rent, how is that fair?
    So does anyone know of any home remedies or cheaper methods for treating an external ear infection that aren't over $100?
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    If the doc prescribed ciprodex they probably have a rep, if they have a rep they probably get samples......call the office and ask for a sample.
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Isnt it funny how the pharma company and drug always take the heat regarding the cost of healthcare. You paid $300 to sit in a waiting room, sit in a patient room, and then have a doctor or mid level take fifteen seconds to ask you about symptoms and peek into your ear with an otoscope...none of that helped you actually get better. The ciprodex however will. So, in this instance the cost of the medication(which actually treats you) sounds like the best deal to me!
     
  4. Steve Hanov

    Steve Hanov Guest

    Canada here: My ear/nose/throat specialist gave me some samples to treat my chronic condition -- the samples are now much smaller than a few years ago. They only have a few drops in them but they used to be full sized. I mentioned this to the doctor and she complained about the patents and wrote a prescription.

    Luckily because my wife is employed this only cost me the $5 dispensing fee. So sorry to hear about the story in the US. If we had to pay $130 for it I'd probably go without and put up with the pain and more hearing loss.

    Patent expires in 2020 -- fingers crossed bacteria doesn't show immunity before then.
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    THIS IS SO TRUE! Did the office visit co-pay or doctor's fee cure your ear infection? NO!! The drug did that. So, doesn't that make money spent on the drug the BEST use of your resources?! And to the guy griping about the amount of drug in a sample bottle .... it was FREE, and you're still complaining?! Take responsibility for your life buddy.
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I am an ENT doc in Covington WA. I think that the price of Ciprodex is insane! Alcon developed this medication many years ago to provide an alternative to Cortisporin. Cortisporin had been used for years and worked well and was inexpensive, but unfortunately it contains Neomycin which is potentially ototoxic(damages the inner ear in animals). All the ENT docs were happy to switch over to Ciprodex to avoid any toxicity. Now that we are all prescribing Ciprodex for our patients, Alcon keeps jacking the price up. The active ingredients, Ciprofloxacin and Dexamethasone have been around for decades and are very inexpensive. I would speculate that it would cost just a few dollars at the most to manufacture a bottle of Ciprodex. Research and development costs have already been made back many times over. These high prices are nothing more than corporate greed.
    One could use Ciprofloxacin eye drops and Dexamethasone eye drops as a cheaper and theoretically equal alternative. The problem is that most docs don't know about this alternative. Also the office staff has to deal with calls from the pharmacists and the patients as to why we are prescribing eye drops for the ears.
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    The cost is based upon desperate people trying to keep their jobs ad they don't have anything else!
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    See my post that also addresses the high cost of medications in "Alcon has become an assembly line":

    big pharma cannot lay off thousands of R&D personnel (all of them purportedly engaged in earth-shattering discoveries), because it has a large a powerful lobby that sells this very research as being earth-shattering (see my earlier posts on where the 'real' research emanates from). The moment it starts laying off these (for the most part -useless and non-productive) "scientists", the carefully crafted PR myth of 'blockbuster' research will fall to pieces. Big pharma has become a prisoner of its own philosophy.

    In my opinion, there is absolutely no reason why 10% of income (averaging to about 4-6 billion dollars) for big pharma be allocated to R&D. This is simply money wasted to keep up appearances. Most of the block-buster molecules originate from small start-ups. Big Pharma simply licences and sells them - for which it can just as well hire cheap foreign scribes for getting the right paperwork submitted. As regards the argument of 'basic research', most of that is done at Universities or non-profit institutions. The recently manufactured QbD argument holds only when profit is under threat due to batches/product being of sub-standard quality. The profit margin in Pharma is of such magnitude that there is no driving necessity to embrace this (hence its adoption as namesake only - to provide numerous reports and modules on QbD in submissions).
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    If big Pharma owns up to the fact that the PR campaign of cutting edge R&D disproportionately portrays its R&D as the engine of life saving drugs; then it can begin the much needed task of passing off some of the (socially non-responsible, shareholder market driven) profits to the consumers and lower the cost of its (for the most part, marginally more effective) medicines.
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    80 BN spent by NIBR last ten years for what?

    They have produced next to nothing on their own. The guy from McKinsey buying Allergan has a clue, he guts worthless R&D
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    You have to he an idiot , live like most of us do. Drug prices are outrageous, the - screw em. Doctors should not be requirdf to provide less expensive alternatives. Then i guess they would lose drug company money.
     
  12. MOM of 2

    MOM of 2 Guest

    I am a mom of 2 and just came back from the doc. My 9 year old has a swimmers ear infection. The Doc Prescribed Ciprodex. He gave me a $25 off Coupon..... I can imagine how mush this is going to be. NO, I am not complaining! I am appreciating that I am able to cure his infection.... I was just wondering was there any other meds I could use to help this?
     
  13. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    It's not a $25 off coupon. It's a pay NO MORE than $25 coupon. Takes off up to $150 depending on your copay.
     
  14. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Don't we have to kick a nice chunk of money up to Bayer for Cipro licensing?
     
  15. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    So I'm sure you see all your patients pro bono, since you have no use for money, right, doc?
     
  16. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Not any more!
     
  17. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Love this- why is ciprodex so expensive, because nurses, Dr., plumbers, construction workers, bankers, pharmacist, fast food workers want to make more money.. so they make more money, everything goes up to pay for wages, in Canada, you make shit money, you have to live in the snow, 2/3rds of the year, you have to wait for medical care. We have better roads, better, hospitals, better universities and cry about how much everything cost.. go to mexico.. people don't pay taxes, pay less for meds, but their government is much more corrupt than ours, their cops are cartel members in disguise. they don't get justice for 43 dead students and we want just for one dead 18 year their that is of a minority group-now the whole town of Ferguson is destroying itself.. so now everything on their block is going to get much more expensive... So why is med so expensive, No. 1 it's brand, no. 2 it's America, land of the free, no. 3- the FDA, no. 4. Lawsuits. HAHAHA. disclaimer, i work for pharmacy benefit manager as customer service rep and a person just called to ask why doesn't it cost 15.00 like web.. Well, I hope the web is mailing to you from a reputable source.. GOOD LUCK.
     
  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I WEAR HERRING AIDS AND MY EARS HAVE BEEN ETCHING AND DRY. MY DOCTOR PROSCRIBED CIPRODEX @ $195 FOR A VERY SMALL BOTTLE. I DIDN’T GO IN FOR A PROSTRATE EXAM BUT I WAS FEELING LIKE I HAD ONE.


    I GOT ON LINE AND LOOKED UP THE STUFF CIPRODEX. LOTS ABOUT THE DRUG WHICH IS AN ANTIBIOTIC AND A STEROID. I FOUND THE MAIN INGREDIENTS AND I MADE MY OWN. IT COST ABOUT 6$ . ADDITIONALLY I HAVE BEEN PUTTING SOAP LATHER IN MY EARS WHEN I SHOWER AND LET IT IN THERE A WILE. THEN RINSE IT OUT GOOD, THEN DRY MY EARS OUT AND PUT THE DR. CHEEP SECRET EAR JUICE IN. ITS WORKING I THINK CLEANING MY EARS BETTER WAS MOST HELPFUL AND NOT DIGGING AT THEM WITH Q TIPS HAS HELPED. ALSO IM CLEANING THE TIPS OF MY HEARING AIDS OFTEN.
     
  19. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Maybe that's why you're yelling at us.......
     
  20. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    clean your ear(s) with a cotton swab dipped in a mixture of vinegar and rubbing alcohol at the first sign of discomfort. Cheap and effective. Alcon makes 75 cents profit on every dollar of 'medicine' sold.