is a broadspectrum antifungal creme, it’s made by “Kern Pharma, S.I.” in Spain.
It is then imported by “Bayer” of Germany into the Philippines.
I don’t know anything about Drug development/research but I know that 25 years ago this “CANESTEN” was sold here in form of a clear liquide, it was not cheap then.
Now it’s sold as a creme, the common size is a 10gr tube, the overall lenght of this tube is 8.7cm (incl.the cap), where it’s folded it’s 2.9cm wide and the shoulder is 2cm in diameter, it’s a common Alu tube with typical shape.
Half of this tube contains AIR! the other half is the cream, that according to the writing on the package contains 1% active ingredience!
This 10gramms “Package” costs an average of 250Php = 5-6$
The instruction tells to apply a thin layer of creme 2-3x a day, I have about
5% of my skin infected and go trough it in 2 1/2 days.
Now, the creme costs 500$ a kilo =1000gramms but the creme base is 99% inactive and by my own experience contains about 50% water.
So the “active” ingridient costs 50’000$ a kilo!
Can this be, a drug that is already 25-30 years old (my guess) is still that expensive to manufacture?
I can smell “SHAREHOLDER PROFITS” in this price, I hope somebody has the knowlege to enlight me on how this works.
Thanks
I agree that drug profits and prices are obscene – not long ago I wrote about how it was outrageous that the price of Colchicine – a millenia-old drug – has skyrocketed from a few cents to $5 a pill as a single company has cormnered FDA approval, and found that there were about half a dozen medications of long standing that the same thing has happened to. Americans are now ordering the drug from Canadian and other sources outsaide the US.
My advice is to look for alternate sources. Here in the US there are over-the-counter creams that use Clotrimazole as the active ingredient, salthough the concentration may be lower. Lotramine is one, but i have no idea if you can buy it where you are.
I’d be happy if my generic prescriptions were only $5-6 each.
Remove typical retail markup before you start attributing all of that price to the manufacturer.
The inactive ingredient costs something. Packaging too. Shipping too. Labor for the employees involved in production.
It is not so unusual for the associated costs of distribution to exceed the cost of an item. And when the consumer does not purchase in bulk then the unit cost is jacked way up.
I can (if available!) buy generic “Canesten” for 1.25$ 10gr.
And if I am not wrong than are 50’000$ more than 1kg. of Gold, even if you estimate only 1/4 for the generic active ingridience, that’s still 12’500$ a kg…
Ditto this. Let’s see, buy a six pack of coke or some medication I need?
But as an actual answer, name-brand companies routinely charge higher prices than off-brand because the consumer is paying for the perception of better quality control than off-brands. In reality the name brands are just choosing a profit-maximizing price point. If you don’t like it, you’re free to buy an off-brand or buy the active ingredient and mix it yourself at your peril.
Also, lots of meds are more valuable than gold by mass (think of every aerosol medicine). That doesn’t mean they’re mis-priced.