Pharmacist leads forum on rising cost of prescriptions

by Melissa Wilson

SBJ Staff

The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Health Care Committee presented a forum Oct. 19 on the fastest-rising health care expense: prescriptions.

Pharmacist John Sherwood, chief executive officer of Managed Health Care Pharmacy, 1947 W. Sunset, led the discussion.

"New medications are responsible for prescription prices rising 10 to 15 percent each year," Sherwood said.

Sherwood said in 1960, approximately 650 prescription drugs were on the U.S. market. "In 1999, there are approximately 8,000," he said. Sherwood went on to say that about 2.8 billion prescriptions were filled in 1998 and that number will rise to about 4 billion in 2005.

Sherwood attributes the rising cost of prescriptions to the pharmaceutical companies' need to recover costs.

"A drug company will spend about $200 million to bring one drug into the marketplace. A patent is good for 17 years, and the drug companies usually apply for patents on new drugs before they are even approved by the Food and Drug Administration," Sherwood said.

Because of the time it often takes the FDA to approve drugs, pharmaceutical companies have a limited amount of time to recover costs before their patents on drugs such as Prozac and Viagra expire.

Sherwood added the U.S. spends $100 billion on prescription drugs each year, and another $100 billion to treat the side effects of those prescriptions.

"Pharmaceuticals as a whole are still a good value ... buying generic drugs can save you a lot of money," Sherwood said.

Sherwood said prescription drug buyers are now more educated about the medication they are using because of the Internet, although he said Internet pharmacies are no replacement for the one-on-one relationship between a patient and a pharmacist.

"No technology can replace that relationship ... a pharmacist should not be a licensed packager, but a counselor of medication," Sherwood said.

Sherwood said he also believes advertising of prescription drugs is an unnecessary expense to pharmaceutical companies, which contributes to the cost of drugs to consumers.

"Advertising prescription drugs also puts physicians on the spot because patients try to self-diagnose and self-prescribe," Sherwood said.