# FACTS ABOUT PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS (AP)



## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

FACTS ABOUT PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTSOctober 02, 2000(AP) - Some facts about prescription drug costs and the pharmaceutical industry: --When a pharmacy sells a prescription, 74 cents of the dollar on average goes to the manufacturer, 3 cents to the wholesaler and 23 cents to the store. --The retail price for prescription drugs went up 6.7 percent a year on average from 1991 to 1998, compared with 2.6 percent for annual general inflation and 4.6 for medical care overall. --The average American uses 10 prescriptions a year. --The number of prescriptions rose 37 percent between 1992 and 1998 while the population went up 6 percent. --TV advertising of prescription drugs has gone up 20-fold since 1994. --Americans pay 28 percent of drug costs out of their own pockets, down from about 50 percent in 1990. --Prescriptions cost $91 billion in 1998. --Drug companies spent $21 billion on research and development in 1998, or 17 percent of their sales. --The drug industry posted after-tax profits of 19 percent of revenue in 1999. The median profit of all Fortune 500 firms was 5 percent that year. The drug industry's profit was 17 percent in 1996 and 14.6 percent in 1993. --About one-third of Medicare beneficiaries have no drug coverage. Main source: Kaiser Family Foundation. ------ On the Net: Kaiser study on prescription drug trends: http://www.kff.org/content/2000/3019/


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