"Horizon also makes the two-in-one painkiller Duexis, which pairs painkiller ibuprofen with the antacid famotidine. The company charges $2,979 for a 90-pill bottle, while the drugs would cost as little as $15 if bought separately."
Even less than that if you buy the generics at WalMart.
60 tab bottle of famotidine is, I think $4.
100 tab bottle of ibuprofen is $4.
"Rea added that he saw no reason patients couldn’t simply take the separate, over-the-counter versions of the drugs. But a spokesperson for Horizon argued that “there are no FDA-approved generic, over-the-counter, or clinically equivalent medicines to Duexis and Vimovo, and any assertion otherwise is completely inaccurate.”
Boy, talk about splitting freaking hairs.
I believe Bayer tried that logic years ago when they came out with the first low dose aspirin regime. The price of a bottle of 100 was something like 30 times what an equivalent bottle of 100 aspirin tables would be... And if you split the aspirin into 4 pieces (the equiv of a single low dose aspirin from Bayer), the price was 4 times more expensive for the Bayer.
They tried rolling out all sorts of arguments why it was a bad idea to split aspirin tablets -- death, destruction, zombiism, plague, pox, etc. -- but most doctors simply told patients to split the tablets, either in half or in quarters.
When I started aspirin therapy, I said screw that mess, I'm simply going to take a standard aspirin tablet a day. Been doing it for years, no problems. And I get a bottle of 100 aspirin tablets at WalMart for 98 cents.
Now days Walmart has low dose aspirin for $4 for a 300 count bottle. Bayer's 300 count bottle is over $12 at Target.
