How to save money this winter when buying over-thecounter

Transcription

1 D. Gary Benfield, M.D. How to save money this winter when buying over-thecounter drugs Now that the winter cold and flu season is here, let s look at ways to get the best bang for your buck when buying over-the-counter (OTC) medicines to treat your family s wintertime miseries. Rule #1: When you compare the in-house brand to the national brand of an over-the-counter medicine, make sure they both contain the same active ingredient(s) and the same amount of that active ingredient(s). In that way, you ll be comparing apples to apples. The active ingredient(s) is always listed first on the drug label, which is called Drug Facts. Rule #2: What is an active ingredient? An active ingredient is actually a drug itself that treats the patient s symptoms. Each OTC medicine contains from one to five active ingredients. Most contain one or two. Rule #3: You will typically get the same relief from the in-house brand as you do with the national brand if they both contain the same active ingredient(s) and the same amount of that active ingredient. However, the in-house brand will almost always be cheaper, sometimes much cheaper. Now for some examples: Suppose you have a few aches and pains. Your first thought may be to go out and buy Tylenol, a highly advertised national brand of pain reliever. The active ingredient in Tylenol is acetaminophen.

2 Johnson & Johnson spends more than $100 million each year advertising the many sizes and forms of Tylenol that help infants, children and adults get relief from their aches and pains. The advertising lures us into thinking we are buying a superior product that offers extra value. Of course, there is no evidence that is true. Let s say you go online to the WalMart web site. You discover that a bottle of 100 Extra Strength Tylenol caplets (each caplet contains 500 mg of acetaminophen) sells for $ That s 13.6 cents per caplet. Equate is WalMart s in-house brand for its OTC drug products. The Equate price for Extra Strength Acetaminophen (500 mg per caplet) is $6.98 for a double pack of 500 caplets. That s 1.4 cents per caplet. So, if you buy the Tylenol brand of acetaminophen, you will pay almost 10x as much per caplet as you would if you bought the Equate brand product (13.6 cents per caplet versus 1.4 cents per caplet.). Now let s suppose you prefer Advil for your aches and pains. You look on the drug label for the active ingredient in Advil and you discover that it s ibuprofen. WalMart sells a bottle of 200 tablets of Advil Ibuprofen Pain Reliever (200 mg ibuprofen per tablet) for $ That s 6.5 cents per tablet or half the price of a caplet of Extra Strength Tylenol. 2

3 On the other hand, 200 tablets of WalMart s Equate brand of Ibuprofen (200 mg per tablet) sells for $4.00 or 2 cents per tablet, which is 69 percent less than the Advil brand. (6.5 cents per tablet versus 2 cents per tablet.) Suppose you have the flu and are having trouble sleeping at night. So you go to the Rite Aid web site. There you find Unisom Nighttime Sleep Aid, which comes in a package of 32 softgels that sell for $10.99 or 34 cents per softgel. Each softgel contains 50 mg of diphenhydramine, the active ingredient. You compare the Unisom national brand product to Rite Aid s in-house sleep aid product that also comes in a package of 32 softgels, each of which contains 50 mg of diphenhydramine. They sell for $4.89 or 15 cents per softgel, which is less than half the price of the Unisom product. (34 cents per softgel versus 15 cents per softgel.) Since both of these sleep aids contain the same active ingredient and the same amount of that active ingredient, the only difference between the two is price. And we ve seen that Rite Aid s in-house product is 56 percent cheaper. Let s hop back to WalMart s web site for a final example. Suppose you need an OTC medicine for allergies and you are thinking of using Zyrtec Allergy Tablets. You look on the label and notice that cetirizene, an antihistamine, is the active ingredient. The tablets contain 10 mg of cetirizene and come 70 tablets in a bottle that sells for $ This amounts to 50 cents per tablet. 3

4 You also notice that Walmart s Equate brand offers an allergy relief tablet that also contains 10 mg of cetirizene as the active ingredient. These come as 90 tablets in a bottle that sells for $ This amounts to 22 cents per tablet, which is 56 percent cheaper than the Zyrtec national brand product. Since both of these allergy products contain the same active ingredient and the same amount of that active ingredient, the only difference between the two is price. From the examples above, it seems clear that there is little reason to buy a national brand product over-the-counter when its comparable in- house product is available, almost always at a cheaper price. A further thought: Millions and millions of doses of acetaminophen are consumed in this country annually. It s a safe, effective and relatively cheap drug when used as directed. Unfortunately, it isn t always used as directed. The FDA has set a strict limit on the amount of acetaminophen that it is safe to take daily. That limit is 4,000 mg or 4 grams. Obviously if you consume two 500 mg caplets of extra strength acetaminophen every 6 hours, you have reached the daily limit of 4,000 mg. So if you are also taking a medication that contains acetaminophen, like Percocet or Vicodin, you will be over the limit and at risk of acute liver damage, liver failure, and death. You may not realize that more than 600 medications, both prescription and non-prescription, contain the active ingredient acetaminophen. You may also not 4

5 realize that if you consume three or more alcoholic drinks daily and take acetaminophen, you are over the limit, too. In 2010, 321 people died from acetaminophen toxicity, according to the CDC. More than half died from accidental overdoses. The rest overdosed deliberately in an attempt to commit suicide Gary Benfield 5