Prescription Drug Costs at Michigan Pharmacies Vary Widely, Attorney General’s Report Says

Prices for the same prescription medications vary by up to 400% among Michigan's pharmacies, according to a statewide survey conducted by the state attorney general's office and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program. Reuters/Detroit Free Press reports that volunteers contacted 130 pharmacies in 10 cities statewide between January and February and asked about the prices of five drugs most commonly used by seniors: Celebrex for arthritis; alprazolam, the generic equivalent of Xanax, for anxiety; hydrochlorthiazide for hypertension; Ambien, a sleep aid; and Evista to prevent osteoporosis. The survey also looked at prices for amoxicillin, an ear-infection treatment for young children. In one example, volunteers found that 60 pills of alprazolam cost $8 at one Detroit pharmacy and $41.22 at another pharmacy in the area, a 415% difference. In another example, a 10-day supply of Amoxicillin cost $5.53 at one pharmacy in Flint and $22.09 at another pharmacy in the city, a 299% difference. Volunteers also found that pharmacies in southeastern Michigan "generally charged higher prices" for prescription drugs than pharmacies in northern Michigan. Pharmacies in the cities of Birmingham, Flint and Detroit charged the highest prices in the state, according to the survey. Attorney General Jennifer Granholm (D) said she will conduct quarterly follow-up surveys at the pharmacies with the highest prices and might sue the stores if she finds a "pattern of excessively high prices." Michigan law prevents pharmacies from charging prices that are "grossly in excess of the price at which similar property or services are sold," Reuters/Free Press reports. Granholm said, "There's no question that some of the prices our surveyors found border on price gouging." But a spokesperson for the American Pharmaceutical Association, which represents pharmacists, said, "If there were no variation in prices among pharmacies there would probably be an investigation into collusion and antitrust laws" (Reuters/Detroit Free Press, 3/5). Last week, Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano (D) released a similar survey, which said drug prices were lowest on Internet sites, at pharmacies in Mexico and in rural areas (Caffrey/Gold, Wall Street Journal, 3/6).