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From: werner@aecom.yu.edu (Craig Werner)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Why AZT is so expensive
Message-ID: <2434@aecom.yu.edu>
Date: 6 Sep 89 03:19:58 GMT
References: <26871@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <1187@nih-csl.UUCP>
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 20


	While we're on the subject of conspiracy theories, here's a bit
of debunking.  The cost of AZT is usually expressed as an annual cost:
$8000-10,000.  That seems like a lot of money because it probably is
a lot of money.
	However, a rough estimate of the cost of producing AZT places
the actual cost of production at about 20-35% the cost that it is actually
sold for.  True, that's a 300% markup, but considering the cost of clinical
trials, that's actually not way out of line. AZT is a biochemical, and it
costs roughly $20/gram. That's about $2  pill.. Quite a  commonly used
pharmaceutical drugs  cost more than that, but are used for only short
periods of time.  AZT is taken 4 times a day, for the rest of one's
life, or until  it can no longer be tolerated.  That's why it costs so much.
It's not the first prescription that gets you, it's all the refills.

-- 
	        Craig Werner   (future MD/PhD, 4.5 years down, 2.5 to go)
	     werner@aecom.YU.EDU -- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
              (1935-14E Eastchester Rd., Bronx NY 10461, 212-931-2517)
Everything's different. Nothing's changed. Well, only maybe slightly rearranged.