Prescription needed to remedy generic drug pricing shenanigans

Wanda Ferrin fills her husband's prescription for the generic antibiotic doxycycline at a Target in Simi Valley. For years, the medication has cost her $6 a month.

In February, however, the price tripled to $18 for 30 pills. And this month, it skyrocketed to $133.

This is noteworthy enough. But what happened next makes the entire business of drug pricing a study in lunacy.

"A pharmacy clerk at Target suggested running the prescription through the company's discount program," Ferrin, 61, recalled. "After a minute at the computer, the clerk I'd been dealing with came back and said my price was now $8."

That's right: A $6 drug turns into an $18 drug and then a $133 drug. But with a little retail hocus-pocus, it can be changed to an $8 drug.

Talk about a trip through the looking glass.

I heard a number of stories similar to Ferrin's after writing recently about a CVS customer who saw her bill for generic doxycycline jump from $4.30 to $165.

One reader told me about a doubling of the price of the generic gout medicine colchicine. Another cited prices for the generic version of the blood-clot blocker Plavix that ran from $21 to $400.

Question: How does this happen? Answer: It's complicated.

The ingredients of prescription drugs come from all over the world these days. Sometimes there are shortages, sometimes not. Sometimes numerous manufacturers will produce a generic drug, pushing prices down. Sometimes only a handful of makers will be in the game.

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Prescription needed to remedy generic drug pricing shenanigans