Costs plus in pharmacy

Lifted from comments on Conundrum on waste and value in American healthcare deserves a nod.

Reader Denis points us to this NYT article:

The soaring cost of a simple breath

“The arsenal of medicines in the Hayeses’ kitchen helps explain why. Pulmicort, a steroid inhaler, generally retails for over $175 in the United States, while pharmacists in Britain buy the identical product for about $20 and dispense it free of charge to asthma patients. Albuterol, one of the oldest asthma medicines, typically costs $50 to $100 per inhaler in the United States, but it was less than $15 a decade ago, before it was repatented. ”