3 months supply of Mobic from Medco is $600.00 vs $10.00 for meloxicam. Mobic must have other ingrediants that causes the cost to be so much. Meloxicam, doesn't help me, while Mobic does.
Why is Mobic so expensive vs meloxicam?
Question posted by kingston001 on 4 June 2012
Last updated on 14 June 2014
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Answers
tonyplake
22 Jan 2013
Mobic IS meloxicam - a Cox-2 inhibitor. You can look both of them up here on www.drugs.com or google your question "What are the differences between Mobic and Meloxicam." I'm not a doctor and would ask you to check with him. It might be your insurance - $10 sounds like a co-pay. I would also check around and ask many other pharmacies their price points for Mobic since it works best for you. I looked at Medco just now and it appears to be mail order. Other than price gouging, I again reiterate Mobic is Meloxicam. Call any pharmacy and they will tell you. The very best of luck to you. I have had my years of horrible struggles paying retail for my monthly drugs. I would recommend "Move Free" by Schiff for any reason you take Mobic/Meloxican for. Check it out online movefree.com. It did wonders for my chronic pain. I don't know what I'd do without it and it is only $18 for 40 days worth. I just swear by it and you can take it without the warnings and side effects the Cox-2 Inhibitors have. All the best, Tony
suzanne66
4 June 2012
Mobic is the brand name drug and meloxicam is the generic version (a copy of the brand).
By law, all generics must have the same active ingredients as the brands they copy. They must be the same strength and work the same way as the brand name drug. Technically meloxicam should give you the same relief as Mobic.
Generic drugs are less expensive because generic manufacturers don't have the investment costs of the developer of a new drug. New drugs are developed under patent protection. The patent protects the investment--including research, development, marketing, and promotion--by giving the company the sole right to sell the drug while it is in effect. As patents near expiration, other manufacturers can apply to the FDA to sell generic versions. Because those manufacturers don't have the same development costs, they can sell their product at substantial discounts. Also, once generic drugs are approved, there is greater competition, which keeps the price down.
kingston001
4 June 2012
Thank you for the explanation. However, why did the cost of Mobic jump so high after the patent has expired? When Mobic was first introduced, it cost me about 35.00 per month. Now it is 200.00 per month.
kaismama
4 June 2012
The brand name is still manufactured by the developing company, and they will continue to try to get as much as they can for it. Medications in general seem to have taken a bit of a jump lately. Even my generics are more. That huge a jump makes me, a skeptic, want to think since they aren't selling as much Mobic they have to charge more to keep shoving all that money in their pockets.
Inactive
4 June 2012
Skeptical Kaismama,
I happen to believe every word you said, and I hard the higher than Hades prices we have to pay until generics come out.
Angry Hippie
kaismama
4 June 2012
The ones that get me are the generics that sell for 4 times as much here as they are in canada. That is nothing but price gouging.
feduchin
15 Sep 2012
I am truly sorry for so many people with health and medication problems in the USA. I live in Australia where it is quite simply impossible to have these problems. There are hundreds of good suburban MDs in Australia that 'bulk bill' to Medicare, the national health system. I haven't paid my doctor a penny since I became his patient in the middle '90's. Even 'high class' doctors average only $60 - $80 a visit; of course actual 'specialists' (heart spec., urologist, etc) average more like $160 a visit - but one still gets an automatic rebate of around $80 from Medicare when one has to use them.
My prescriptions, before I retired early this year, would average between $15 and $45, depending on the drug, because all prescribed drugs are subsidized by the Australian government. Even Viagra, a non-essential, but still a drug only obtainable on prescription (unless bought on the Internet from Canada!), is partly subsidized (I think) as you get a package of 4 for about $80. And now that I have retired I get all prescriptions at $5 each!
I am exceedingly sympathetic with average US people who are not wealthy enough to have insurance, and I can tell you that the opinion of the average Aussie is to wonder how Americans can live in such a system that literally allows people to die.
I have had two major operations in the past 10 years; a heart operation involving a stent, and a prostatechtomy(?); the cost was probably at least $40,000 or $50,000 for the two, and I did not pay anything at all; and I had NO insurance. Our system REALLY looks after us, as does the New Zealand, and I've heard, the Canadian, not to mention the British, French and German...
And yet look at the totally ridiculous outcry in the USA when successive Democrat Presidents try to change things. Our attitude to President Obama's efforts is "good on yer".
I am sorry, I am not merely trying to show how well off we are, more to show you that other systems exist that work very well and you deserve the same, and it's worth fighting for. Good luck.
kaismama
15 Sep 2012
This countries basic principal is see how much money you can make. The congressman are the leaders on that. Big business gets all kinds of concessions so that they make more money. They just keep laying off people saying they cant' afford them, then the ceo sticks millions in his pocket. Greed is the motivation for most of big businesses doings.
feduchin
15 Sep 2012
It's as kaismama says, and it's mean spirited toward the average worker. I fear the the day will come when those ceo's will regret their attitude towards their workers, as not merely jobs but whole factories and industries go overseas - westward..
kaismama
15 Sep 2012
They're going now because they can abuse foreign workers so much. You can tell by the poor quality of things, they aren't made here. The one that really gets me is medical supplies. I had a gauze pad rip in 2 not long ago. I said geez made in china, kind of joking, but low and behold, that's where they were made.
tonyplake
22 Jan 2013
Suzanne66 is spot on with her explanation of brand name patented medicines. I worked as a paralegal for the last years in my career in intellectual property - patent and trademark law.
I agree buying the patented drug can really hit the checkbook. Most people I know all take generic drugs because name brand drugs are way too expensive.
blaze22
21 Feb 2013
Another perfect example would be that while in Florida I was able to receive free samples of Zoloft and or was accepted at certain clinics where they were able to prescribe Zoloft at a price as low as 14.00 but now in Iowa I had to CHG to sertraline..
.I had to stop taking it I noticed a big difference after 7 months... How much is Zoloft..200.00 a month I about fell off the chair... Because of fibromyalgia I've been switched to Cymbalta 30 mg a day its been a week... blaze22
..
Montanasky2217
14 June 2014
I also have a big problem with meloxicam not working as well as Mobic does... I have almost no pain with the Mobic were as I still have severe pain when using the meloxicam instead. So I will say there is a definite difference in how they both work for me.
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