Pfizer, You’re Killing Me!
Here’s a little public grievance for my friends at Pfizer Animal Health: Stop jacking up the cost of veterinary medications on a quarterly basis and pricing my clients out of treatment! There, I said it. Pfizer, creator of wonderful drugs like Convenia and Zeniquin, has been increasing the cost of its medications exponentially since early last year. I grimace as I prep owners for the financial shock when these medications are indicated. Don’t even get me started on the price of Rimadyl and Clavamox.
Perhaps the recession hit the drug giant hard and their financial loss is being passed along to distributors and veterinarians. This is capitalism in action and money makes the world go round, yada yada. My problem is not with profit, but the repetitive precipitous increases in cost that get passed on to my clients. It’s not that the price is rising, it’s how fast and how much the price is rising each time. In some instances, the price rises nearly $0.10/pill every quarter. That sounds like small potatoes until you take into account that’s $10/quarter and $40/year on every bottle of medication we dispense. I recently wanted to prescribe 10 days of Zeniquin to a large German Shepherd for an ascending infection arising from a nail bed. Cost to owner would have been about $150. Yikes! Talk about seeking an alternative drug therapy!
Rising prices mean changing treatment plans to accommodate an owner who doesn’t have $150 to spend on medications. I will write a prescription for antibiotics so owners can get them for a better price at a local pharmacy. However, there are only a finite number of medications, particularly broad spectrum antibiotics, available to treat these common conditions so options are limited for a serious infection. I lament providing the “suboptimal” treatment because, quite frankly, drug companies like Pfizer can’t put a cap on their prices for more than four months.
I’m here via dolittler as well.
May I ask who you’re writing the blog for? I think you’re doing a very nice job, and everything you say makes perfect sense to me. Then again, I’m a vet student, so I know what words like ‘dystocia’ mean.
As an owner of two large breed dogs, both GSDs, I assure you that even I think twice on treatment options when the prices keep going up and up and up, and I know full well what complications might result from sub-optimal treatment! I honestly don’t know how some clients afford to actually do what is in the animal’s best interet medically. One of mine has severe and worsening atopic dermatitis… Not cheap or easy to treat at the best of times, and due to cost, he definitely suffers more than he would if I could afford some of the better approaches. Cost is a limiting factor for everyone.
I wonder what effect the Fort Dodge/Wyeth-Pfizer/BI dealings have on the prices lately and in the future.
1They, of course, aren’t giving any reason as to why this is, are they? It’s like they’re *trying* to price themselves out of everyone’s reach. When I was a kid, it was explained to about about supply and demand, and that, yes, you might make more money in the short term by pricing something at 10x cost, but if you only sell 2 of them, and your competitor prices them at 2x cost, he’ll likely sell *more* than 10 of them, and he’ll make more money.
2Lindabcs “May I ask who you’re writing the blog for?”: I like to think I write a mix of articles where anyone can find something to read in the mix. I have some posts specific for the veterinary community and others for pet owners. I think the breadth of veterinary medicine’s reach is too broad to limit to one type of audience. Not every post will be for everyone’s reading pleasure and that’s okay with me! I’d love to find relevant jargon filled veterinary information out there other than what you get on VIN but I also want to educate owners and stimulate discussion. Perhaps as VMDiva evolves I will find more of a niche, but for now, it’s more about posting my ideas, cases, and educational information.
3I’ve been out of the veterinary profession for almost four years now, but I still remember how much I hated getting Pfizer’s price increase letters every quarter. They seemed to “out-increase” every other drug company each and every time.
I don’t know what the answer is. I know pharmaceutical companies are in the business of making money, and they don’t develope and sell these drugs out of the goodness of their hearts. And unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), within our human health care system, insurance companies bear the brunt of some of these drug costs (although, of course, ultimately, it’s the consumer who pays through increased insurance premiums). Is pet health insurance the answer for coping with these astronomical prices? Is it time for these companies to get a conscience? The sad reality is that veterinarians are either forced to compromise their level of care or lower their mark up for these drugs – neither solutions is a good one.
4Corporate greed is a terrible thing when it involves healthcare, human or animal.
5We just switched to Novox at our clinic specifically because of Pfizer’s prices… I dont know if you make the decisions but you should get whoever does to look into it, Novox is like 1/2 the price of Rimadyl….
6r00: We have Novox as well and I do use it fairly regularly. I have had about 3 clients switch to Novox who swear their dog isn’t doing as well as it did on Rimadyl. Your experience?
7Ill report back in a few weeks… we are still weeding out our Rimadyl stock as I am writing this…
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