Wal-Mart Stores and Kmart, always raising slogans for the cut in prices, have been raising prices for the most popular brand-name diabetes drugs. Generic drug being sold at Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer since 2006. Public is afraid that the tactic may be followed by other few in USA.
A New York based endocrinologist Dr. Ronald Tamler, at 's Mount Sinai Medical Center said that "Since 2008, everybody has lowered generic prices close to the level of Wal-Mart," The doctor is also a co-author of the price study. He added that now "the differential in pricing for brand-name drugs is huge." His study, presented here at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, found that the differential between pharmacy prices for generic diabetes drugs fell 60 percent between 2008 and 2010, compared with an increase of 113 percent for brand-name drugs.
Wal-Mart raised prices for the most-prescribed branded diabetes treatments by 32 percent between 2008 and 2010, while Kmart, raised its prices by 35 percent. At other pharmacies the increase remained almost 21 percent which includes chain drugstores, mail-order firms and independent pharmacies.
