Tuesday, July 3, 2012

This can't happen soon enough

According to this site: "Merck is due to lose its patent protection on Singulair in August of 2012, which is the earliest that a generic version of Singulair will be available. Brand-name Singulair generally retails for almost $150 for a 30 day supply, so it looks like Singulair is going to be a big drain on the budget of many American asthma and allergy patients for a while longer, unfortunately."


Why do I bring this up? ... Because we had to renew SCB's Singulair prescription... 


Without insurance it would be $557.92 for a 90 day supply because there isn't a generic version out there...


Thankfully we have health insurance and prescription coverage. Instead we have to pay $20 for a 30 days supply and we think $60 for a 90 day supply (we have to wait until they charge our card to see the price because the paperwork is confusing) ... 


but boy I can't wait for generics for this drug...


at $20 a month, it costs us $240.00 a year just so my hubby can breathe...   

4 comments:

  1. Amen. Nasonex, it's your turn next! (But not until 2014).

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  2. Wow! That's awesome news. I'm studying Respiratory Care and last year in my pharmacology class we talked about how expensive the Singulair family of drugs are. It's actually not the most expensive. Along that same time I was doing a clinical rotation and a woman came into the ER suffering from an asthma attack. She hadn't taken her meds in 3 months because Singulair was one of them and she had lost her job, thus her medical insurance and couldn't afford it. Her new way of dealing with her asthma was to wait for it to flare up enough to go to ER and have them give her a supply of steroids and a rescue inhaler. I thought that was so unfortunate. So, I'm glad to hear this. I'm going to talk to my professor about it next week. Thanks for the info and congrats!!!

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    Replies
    1. Glad to know I could help ya out :)

      Ever day I count our blessings that we have health care. If we didn't, that same three months supply would have been 557.00. I don't even know where we would get the money to pay for that...

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  3. It's insane... I was paying $180/month for my Advair. Thankfully I'm now "drug-free" & my asthma is under control! Hope the generics kick in soon!

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