In Australia, prescription drugs generally cannot be advertised to consumers. Additionally, prescriptions for all drugs are written in the generic drug name form and not the branded form.
That said, where this currently seems to fall apart is the pharamacies.. most only stock a single "brand" and pricepoint for many drugs, two at most. Most pharamcies aren't online so you can't easily compare prices. In practice, I have frequently observed over many different prescriptions a price different of 1-2x between pharamcies in the same area for the exact same thing and dosage. Additionally, the way we fill scripts here you don't even get the price until you go to pay and theyve already labelled your box with your script, etc.
There's also largely no pricing on the shelves, even if you can see the behind the counter ones.
The only thing that saves us, is that "many" but not all drugs are subsidised by our public health care and the government negotiates the price. But for any non-subsidised drug it's open season and also much of the pricing is "per dispense" and not at all related to the drug quantity.
e.g. 4x10mg or 28x5mg of the same drug has the same price.
Also recently the much-publicised Ozempic which is used for weightloss and diabetes which is $150/dose here, because the price is fixed by that government negotiated price for diabetic patients but off-label prescribers get the same price even when not subsised by the government and they actually have to pay the full $150. They launched the literal exact same drug for weight loss as "Wegovy" but they vary the recommended dosages a little so that in practice you can't cross-fulfill the prescription. The exact same 1mg is $150 when sold as Ozempic and $250 when sold as Wegovy :) And for some straight reason the weight loss dose is "2.8mg" but the diabetic doses are 1mg and 3mg.
That said, where this currently seems to fall apart is the pharamacies.. most only stock a single "brand" and pricepoint for many drugs, two at most. Most pharamcies aren't online so you can't easily compare prices. In practice, I have frequently observed over many different prescriptions a price different of 1-2x between pharamcies in the same area for the exact same thing and dosage. Additionally, the way we fill scripts here you don't even get the price until you go to pay and theyve already labelled your box with your script, etc.
There's also largely no pricing on the shelves, even if you can see the behind the counter ones.
The only thing that saves us, is that "many" but not all drugs are subsidised by our public health care and the government negotiates the price. But for any non-subsidised drug it's open season and also much of the pricing is "per dispense" and not at all related to the drug quantity.
e.g. 4x10mg or 28x5mg of the same drug has the same price.
Also recently the much-publicised Ozempic which is used for weightloss and diabetes which is $150/dose here, because the price is fixed by that government negotiated price for diabetic patients but off-label prescribers get the same price even when not subsised by the government and they actually have to pay the full $150. They launched the literal exact same drug for weight loss as "Wegovy" but they vary the recommended dosages a little so that in practice you can't cross-fulfill the prescription. The exact same 1mg is $150 when sold as Ozempic and $250 when sold as Wegovy :) And for some straight reason the weight loss dose is "2.8mg" but the diabetic doses are 1mg and 3mg.