Study: Why YOUR medications could cost 4,500 percent more

Medication in the US is expensive with pharmacists paying tens of dollars per pill on a routine basis. That cost is passed to the patient either directly, or in the form of higher insurance costs. As if that's not bad enough, periodic shortages in supply can allow so called "gray market" drug providers to take advantage. Gray market drug providers exploit varying state laws to sell drugs secondhand and at an enormous markup, forcing pharmacists and patients to make difficult and potentially deadly choices about medication.

LOS ANGELES (Catholic Online) - When life saving drugs come into short supply, and it frequently happens without warning, the prices can be marked up as much as a whopping 4,500 percent according to research by Premier, a North Carolina-based group of 2,500 hospitals and 73,000 other health centers in the United States. During acute drug shortages, gray market providers often solicit high-pressure sales of hyper inflated price drugs to hospitals that have little choice but to pay, or to risk patient health otherwise. Worse, the quality of the drugs can be suspect. Many pills can be counterfeit or even fake. 
Most medications are distributed by large corporations set up specifically to sell to health care providers.  However, smaller businesses can often buy quantities of the drugs when they are in ample supply. When a shortage looms because the supplier has slow production or stopped making the drug altogether, the gray market providers strike. Using email, they market directly to pharmacists and others responsible for patient care, advertising scarce supplies of the badly needed medications at very high prices. Some pharmacists and patients pay while others use substitutes which can be less effective, or have undesired side effects. Others forgo treatment altogether and risk serious illness or death. 
Food and Drug Administration officials are examining the problem. While the FDA cannot compel drug companies to manufacture anything, they can at least mandate early warnings when shortages are bound to occur, which should give pharmacists and health care providers an opportunity to take precautions. The US Senate is expected to address the issue soon with a proposed bill to prevent these shortages from occurring. Whenever it is legally suspect, the FDA does pursue gray market providers, but the patchwork of state regulations makes it easy for gray market providers to stay in business despite the integrity of their practices and the consequences of such reality can be expensive or even deadly for some.

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