Las Vegas NowAre Pharmacies Gouging Tamiflu Prices?

Are Pharmacies Gouging Tamiflu Prices?

With so many cases of the flu, Tamiflu is becoming a very popular prescription. There's even a shortage of the liquid form for children.

Some pharmacies are taking advantage of that and raising the prices.

A survey by USA Today found the cost of children's Tamiflu varied a lot. In Pennsylvania and Michigan, prices ranged from $49 to $99. But in California, the price starts at $55 and goes up to $130.

Attorneys general in at least two states are investigating possible price gouging.

8 News Now conducted its own random telephone survey of more than a dozen pharmacies. We wanted to find out if the price of Tamiflu varied as much here as it did in some other states.

The drug is not cheap, especially if you don't have any prescription drug coverage. If you're uninsured, prescription Tamiflu is going to cost you about $100 for the normal five-day course, whether it's the capsule or liquid suspension compound. We also discovered a nearly $50 swing in price, so shopping around for your Tamiflu can save you some big bucks.

With the severe cough and high fever caused by this season's H1N1 flu, it's no wonder the wonder drug Tamiflu is flying off pharmacy shelves. “Instead of the flu lasting five or six days, it may cut it down to three or four days, which is important when you feel lousy,” said Target pharmacy manager Ken Kunke.

Kunke was not surprised to hear how well Target fared in our 8 News Now random price survey. “We do hear from our customers that our prices are lower than our competitors,” he said.

On average, Target and Walmart pharmacies both charged less for Tamiflu than their competitors. But overall, prices ranged from as low as $90 up to $138 for a single 5-day course, with some pharmacies charging as much as $20 dollars more for the same dosage if they had to use capsules to make a liquid suspension compound themselves.

But again, that wasn't the case at Target where we watched the compounding process from start to finish. “For 10 capsules, which is the normal course, it is $97.49 and for the liquid suspension which is made out of the same 10 capsules, we charge $99.51. So that's only a $2 difference,” said Kunke.

Tamiflu manufacturers are cranking out the 75 mg adult strength capsules to try and keep up with demand, so that's left a severe shortage of the lower dose liquid suspension for children and some pharmacies say they are simply too busy to bother with compounding.

Fortunately, some pharmacies like Target are still willing to fill that need. “Everybody should get it who needs it -- especially children,” said Kunke.

While some pharmacies have the same pricing across the board regardless of where the store was located, there were some pharmacies that charged more for the same prescription in more affluent areas of the valley.