When drug companies sell dietary supplements, prices go through the roof

You can buy a good-quality Niacin supplement for less than $7. That’s 100 tablets, 500 mg each.

Or…you can buy Niaspan, a time-release niacin supplement made by Abbott Laboratories.

What’s the difference? Well, besides the time release factor, not much, except that you’ll naturally expect to pay a little more for the one made by the giant drug company, right?

How much more?

That was the “pop quiz” Dr. Spreen included when he sent me a full page advertisement for Niaspan that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Hmmm. If they’re taking out major advertising in JAMA you know there’s going to be a markup. And Niaspan has its own website. That’s going to cost you too.

So…how much do you think you’ll pay at WalMart for 30 tablets, 1000 mg each?

$20? $50?

I figured it would be high so I guessed $80. Can you imagine the gall it would take to mark up niacin from $7 to $80? Insane! But that was my guess.

And here’s the total, as given to Dr. Spreen by a WalMart druggist: $139.08.

As Dr. Spreen pointed out, you could buy the $7 niacin and still have enough left over every month to pay the lease on a small car.

If P.T. Barnum were alive today, I’m pretty sure he’d be a drug company CEO.