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It is my hope that the current wrangling about health care reform will solve a problem I have with Lipitor.
I pay $2.96 for one pill every day while my friends in Canada pay only $1.36 for the same pill made by the same company, Pfizer. So far, the only answer I have received about this inequity is that "the Canadian government controls the price of drugs." Duh!
Pfizer must be making a profit in Canada at the $1.36 price, so why are they ripping off the citizens of their own country? The $1.60 per day difference costs me $584 per year.
Pfizer has also been able to dodge competition from generics well beyond the drug patent copyright limit, which is normally five years. Lipitor is now in its 13th year and still has no generic competitor in the U.S., thanks to the FDA.
In Canada, atorvastatin, generic Lipitor, is available at a cost of 79 cents for one pill. If this generic were available here, I could reduce my health care cost by $792 per year for this one medication alone.
If my government really wants to help me with my health care costs, they can begin by cleaning up the messes like this which they have helped create.
Jim Waldrep
Lula