The Mysteries of Prescription Pricing in Retail Pharmacies

Abstract

A sample of 13,314 prescriptions filled in 20 pharmacies during a two-week period is analyzed to identify price variations both among and within pharmacies. The results reaffirm previous reports of inter-pharmacy price variation by finding that prices among pharmacies vary by as much as 200 per cent. What is surprising, however, is that the data show that within a two-week period, the price of the same quantity of the same dosage form of the same drug in the same pharmacy also varies by as much as 130 per cent. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis of anti-competitive pricing which, by denying consistent price information to the consumer, makes rational purchasing behavior impossible.