Drastic price increases shock users of generic drugs

In this story:

• $10 prescription now $90
• Arkansas congressman: 'It's astounding'

March 6, 1998
Web posted at: 8:48 p.m. EST (0148 GMT)

From Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Users of seven generic drugs may have added heart trouble to their ailments recently after learning of drastic increases in the cost of their medications.

The average wholesale price for 500 tablets of a diabetes drug called chlorpropamide, for example, has increased from $35.15 to $138.97

A blood pressure pill called methyclothiazide has gone from $19.06 for 100 tablets to $49.64. The price of 1,000 tablets of lorazepam, the second most popular generic anti-anxiety drug and sold under the name Ativan, has more than quadrupled from $179.95 to $796.67.

And a prescription for a drug that cost $10 last month is now nearly $90.

The drugs are manufactured by Mylan Laboratories, which claims the huge increases are necessary because of the increased cost of making the drugs and legal expenses.

Mylan vice president Pat Sunseri says the company was losing money and "we had to make a very serious business decision as to whether we would continue to make the product or drop it because they were losing money.

"But our goal has been, and always will be, to serve the consumer, so we decided to go and increase the prices."

Berry

Arkansas congressman: 'It's astounding'

But Rep. Marion Berry, a Democratic congressman from Arkansas who is also a pharmacist, isn't buying Mylan's story.

"It's astounding," Berry says. "I've never seen a price increase list that even comes close to approaching what this does."

Berry says he's especially worried about senior citizens on a fixed income.

"It's amazing that a company feels like it has so little competition that it can do something like this and take advantage of our seniors in this way," he says. 72K / 6 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

The marketplace doesn't offer much help, because Mylan is the only manufacturer for some of the generic drugs.

It has competition in some cases, but in at least one instance Mylan has forced out a competitor by signing an exclusive agreement with a raw materials supplier.

As a result, the competitor, Alra Laboratories, can no longer make the anti-anxiety pill clorazepate.

"Obviously it hurts us financially," says Raj Bhutani of Alra Laboratories, "but I think even more so it hurts our customers, as well -- and the patient -- because now they don't have an alternative source."

Berry has asked the U.S. Attorney General and the General Accounting Office to investigate Mylan.

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• Mylan Laboratories Inc.

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