Friday, June 25, 2010

The Very Expensive World of IVF Meds

So after finding out that I had to pay almost $4K out of pocket for fertility and all other meds for this next IVF cycle, I spent all of yesterday afternoon calling around other online pharmacies that provide cash discounts on fertility drugs. I called the following companies to compare Follis.tim, Meno.pur, Ganire.lix and HCG:
  The Apothecary Shop
  CVS/Caremark Specialty
  Freedom Drug
  (Formerly) IVP Care - now Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy
  (Formerly) Schaft's - now Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy
  Fairview Specialty Pharmacy
  Triessent Pharmacy (covered by my insurance)
  Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy
  Ascend Specialty Pharmacy (I tried calling but no one answered)

After calling each of these pharmacies, and putting them all into a spreadsheet, I noticed the following.
  • Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy has bought over some of the other (smaller?) pharmacies.
  • Prices of drugs have gone up since the last time I checked in January/February, around 5%.
  • Some companies allow a "discounted" price if you pay a $10 annual fee for Meno.pur (Walgreens and The Apothecary Shop does this); or if you register for the free program, but would need to provide your email address (Walgreens and Fairview), you could get a better price for Follis.tim.
  • I was told that some companies are "preferred" distributors for certain drugs, and therefore can get a cheaper of one drug name, but not the other of a similar drug.  For example, Freedom charges a lot for Follis.tim - $427 for a 300IU cartridge, but only $260 for the same unit of Go.nal-F because they are a "preferred" distributor for Go.nal-F, but not of Follis.tim.  These 2 brands are pretty much the same drug, just different brand name.  Some companies will provide cheaper prices for Follis.tim, other for Go.nal-F.
  • Of the companies looked at, Freedom Drug was the most expensive
  • The Apothecary Shop was the cheapest.
  • Comparing everything, Walgreens is pretty comparable to The Apothecary Shop, with prices being only pennies to a couple of dollars difference (with the exception of the HCG, about $12 difference).
After my last post about having to pay out of pocket for almost all of my drugs this next cycle, I had a couple of ladies offer to donate to me their unused Meno.pur vials, since they are now pregnant.  Yay for them!  And yay for me!  It's not much, just a couple of vials, but still, it is very generous of them.  Thank you ladies, you know who you are.  If you don't already know this, there is a wonderful group of supportive women out there!!  I'm hoping that one day, I too will have some leftover meds that I no longer need, because I would be pregnant (praying and keeping my fingers crossed!)

One of the gals also mentioned buying IVF meds from Canadian online companies.  Their drugs are much cheaper.  Have any of you bought your IVF drugs from an Canadian or European online pharmacy?

I looked at www.canadadrugs.com, but it takes 12 days to ship, with maybe 3-4 days shorter if I go with expedited shipping.  I'm don't think I can get them in time for stim start day of July 2nd, which is next week.

Just looking at canadadrugs.com, only Menopur is cheaper in Canada than what I can get here.

It's insane how expensive IVF meds are!

41 comments:

  1. Good for you for shopping around. We used Ascend and they will bend over backwards to get your meds to you when you need them, but I don't know how thier prices compare to others. Prescription drug costs are criminal, particularly for IVF meds.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I found Alexanders Twin Pharmacy was the cheapest option for me. I called three to four as well. Got to love paying out of pocket for this stuff, huh? :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have some unused gonal F. It would be happy to find a new home. Email me if you need it from my blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  4. Check out this place in Canada, many Canadian girls shop here because it is so much cheaper for us!!!


    www.glenshieldspharmacy.com

    Not sure if they ship to the states or not...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Medication is definitely way expensive! You would think with all the other costs we have to endure that the meds wouldn't cost so much?!? I mean honestly...what are they made with? Holy water?!?! Best of luck on this IVF cycle!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow - that's a lot of research. I am amazed at drug prices in the US!

    ICLW
    http://daega99-arewethereyet.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  7. I know what you mean about the prices. They're crazy expensive. Did you try the online shop: ivfmeds.com?

    ReplyDelete
  8. wow, this is awesome information. Thank you for researching. I am going to hang on to this post as our new insurance (come Jan.) sucks and only gives me a annual max of $3,000 for meds a year, which I will hit right away. That is so amazing that you got donations of meds. This community continues to amaze me every day.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Check out this article I wrote. Towards the very end I wrote about how some of the pharmaceutical companies give away free meds. Sometimes the offers change but it's worth a shot if you have to pay out of pocket.

    http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2800964/how_to_save_money_on_infertility_treatments_pg4.html?cat=52

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for the research. I was surprised about Freedom. I get my ovidrel from them and it was 45$ compared to $79 at Walgreens. Crazy. If I get there I will definitely have to check around.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ugh. I pay out of pocket, too...even though I'm in Canada and there may be cheaper options out there, I'm not sure how my RE would feel about us buying from outside his clinic - he's waiving monitoring fees, so the only way he's making any money is through the meds we're buying, I think...Good for you for seeking bargains!
    Love,
    Maddy

    ReplyDelete
  12. We used Mandell's Pharmacy in NJ.
    http://www.mandellsclinicalpharmacy.com/index.html

    The prices were pretty good, I thought. Of course, I never got to use the $1800 worth of drugs I bought. After 2 years of trying, PCOS, and testicular cancer with around 1 million sperm, I finally gave in and we were going to start ART. DH's sperm count had increased DRAMATICALLY with Vitamin supplements and they told us IUI was a possibility. We conceived NATURALLY mere days before I was supposed to start the drugs I bought. Come September (when baby girl is due) I will be looking for a good home for those drugs.

    Best wishes to you on your journey.

    ReplyDelete
  13. On our first cycle, we paid all out of pocket and used IVP/Walgreens because I also priced the main ones and they were cheapest. Thought we were going to have to do that with our last round, but apparently my insurance covered some things this time (didn't have it with Matthew)...Shady Grove uses this pharmacy http://www.essexrx.com/ and I LOVE them...you'd have to price them as well because as you've found, some companies have contracts and it would depend on your protocol as to what you'd need, but one thing I LOVE about them is that if you have unused meds, they'll buy them back at 90% of what you paid--which could have saved us $600 with our first cycle and instead we just ended up donating back to our clinic (which I gladly did, but would have preferred to get the $$$!)

    Don't know what your protocol will be but I also have some meds we were going to donate to our clinic if you are interested...glad to help!
    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  14. This community is amazing when it comes to sharing fertility drugs. (out of context that sounds bad) When I was worried about not getting on progesterone right away, I had three different offers of pio or suppositories. It was truly amazing.

    I hope you are able to find the best situation to get your meds.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Chinese hamster ovaries. One of the commenters rhetorically asked what these drugs are made of? Really. Chinese hamster ovarian cells. Isn't that funny? :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ugh. I had to pay out of pocket for Gonal f last cycle. It is great that you found ladies that donated stuff! Hope you get that sticky BFP soon!

    ReplyDelete
  17. not sure how and where to post im getting ready for round 2 of my ivf im self pay and short on meds my 1st ivf failed and this is my last try out of funds i would appreciate it heres my email hotkirby2@yahoo.com thank you

    ReplyDelete
  18. try calling MDR Pharmact they are a worldwide infertilty pharmacy and the best thing other than their wonderful costumer service is that match prices. So if you see a medciation cheaper somewhere else they will match there price, no questions asked....Plus they have AMAZING costumer service. Hope this helps

    ReplyDelete
  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  20. This one is nice article.I am really thankful to you for providing this unique information.
    Buy Medicine in Mumbai

    ReplyDelete
  21. Really nice blog. The prices of drugs is going to costly day-by-day. But in technical world Advancements in technology have made purchasing products easy and cheapest. You can able to make some changes on your budget according to the charges for delivery your drugs online. The prices of the medications may be compared when selecting the drugs to buy.
    Buy Medicines Online

    ReplyDelete
  22. We maintain extremely rigorous standards of patient safety. We believe access to essential prescription drugs should be safe, convenient, and affordable for all.

    cheap drugs

    ReplyDelete
  23. Such an amazing blog about the health. Medical ,clinic, and body care I really appreciate you work which you have done well.
    Tablete za potenciju

    ReplyDelete
  24. Is anyone still active on this blog. My husband and I are trying to start yet another round of IVF and are once again paying everything out of pocket. It tool us over a year to get to this point again, and could really use some help with any left over medications people may have. We are in need of Gonal F and ganirelix.

    Any leads would be awesome.

    Thanks,

    Jan

    ReplyDelete
  25. The methodology now turns into a practical answer for women infertility. In case you are going to pick this technique, it is wise to know all the more about the egg donation process. IVFsuccess

    ReplyDelete
  26. Very nice post. Best ivf clinic in nigeria is a hope for infertile people Nigeria.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hello, what an incredible web blog. I more often than not invest hours on the net perusing websites on different subjects. Also,
    I truly might want to commend you for composing such a breathtaking article.
    Buy Modafinil

    ReplyDelete
  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  29. But in my case. I received my order within time (4 days). But i have ordered Viagra 100 mg through the Medsengage.com . Less price compare to other online pharmacy and packaging was good.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Drugs For Sale Online Find the best shop at affordable price amazingpharmacy.store. Buy Drug Online Pharmacy store and Where To Buy Good Drugs Online.

    ReplyDelete
  31. This blog helped me to understand the fact that even a simply written article can be best over thousands of other highly qualified no-meaning articles. So always keep in mind that use simple but accurate parameters for your blog.อ้ ว ย อัน โอสถ

    ReplyDelete
  32. To get the cheap priced IVF treatment you need to fix your appointment with the Eva Hospital. We are Ludhiana based one of the best IVF Centre in India that give you the desired results with high success ratio.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Gaudiumivfcentre gives the treatment requiring little to no effort. We are the IVF Clinic in Delhi that furnishes every single office alongside IVF treatment.

    ReplyDelete
  34. That’s great. People generally avoid infertility treatments because of IVF treatment cost. I think this will be very helpful for middle class peoples.
    IVF Clinic in Delhi

    ReplyDelete
  35. The Online Medicine Shopping is the best way to buy medicines. People love to use technology for their comfort and now the patient doesn't need anyone to take care of him.

    Online Medicine Store | Best Online Pharmacy

    ReplyDelete
  36. Hello man! Incredible post however I extremely needed to simply drop a remark on your blog. Your blog has a super cool outline. Is this wordpress by possibility? sisal rug ballard designs

    ReplyDelete
  37. Your blog has a super cool outline. Is this wordpress by possibility?Carpet Tiles Abu Dhabi

    ReplyDelete