NYT: Companies Plan Price Cuts for 275 Prescription Drugs

[Been Fishing]

Several companies are offering a discount count card to low income families without other insurance:

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Jan. 11 - Ten major pharmaceutical companies said on Tuesday that they were joining in a new program to cut 25 percent to 40 percent from the retail prices of prescription drugs sold to uninsured people of modest means younger than 65.

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The new program offers savings on 275 drugs including Crestor and Lipitor, for high cholesterol; Norvasc, for high blood pressure; Nexium, for heartburn and ulcers; Viagra, for erectile dysfunction; and Zoloft and Paxil, for depression.

The companies participating in the new program are Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Takeda and TAP Pharmaceutical Products.

Industry officials said that if the cards worked as intended, they could reduce the public clamor for legislation to allow the import of low-cost drugs from Canada and elsewhere.

People can qualify for the cards if they are younger than 65 and not eligible for Medicare, if they have no public or private coverage for drug costs and if their incomes do not exceed certain levels. The limit is $30,000 for an individual, $40,000 for a couple, $50,000 for a family of three and $60,000 for a family of four.
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Notice that this is an attempt by the drug companies to counter "the import of low-cost drugs from Canada and elsewhere". Drug companies are protecting their profits.

[Moderator]

1. duplicate topic, please discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1142813