Drug Company Rip Off of The Day Number 2

Damn I hate it when the women are PMSing. That moody, cranky, bite your head off for nothing time of the month. At least I have the decency to be that way pretty much all the time, but with the PMS thing you just never know when your wife, coworker, girlfriend, coworker, sister, coworker or coworker is gonna be pretty much unbearable. I'm sure it's no fun for the ladies either. Wouldn't it be nice if there was maybe;

an FDA-approved prescription treatment that relieves both the mood and physical symptoms of PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder). Many physicians believe that Sarafem helps to correct the imbalance of serotonin that could contribute to PMDD.

Well good news pilgrims! Those words of hope were cut and pasted from the website of Warner-Chilcott, sellers of the wonder drug Sarafem, which has been shown to reduce the symptoms of PMDD (the official scientific name for what normal people call PMS) by 38%. Whoo Hoo! If you're interested in learning more you can look at the official Sarafem website or do some research under its generic name.....fluoxetine.

Of course the first thing you'll probably find when you do a web search for fluoxetine will be lots and lots of results for Prozac, the world famous antidepressant. Let me save you some confusion. They're the same thing. Except for the box. That's different. And the price. You'll pay an extra $96.07 a month for that nice box and a brochure so people won't think you're crazy or something because you take Prozac. (Prices from Drugstore.com)

But um....you know, at least you're getting a good, solid cure for the PMS that ails you, right? Take another look at what I cut and pasted. Notice they haven't proven anything there. "Many physicians believe that Sarafem helps to correct the imbalance of serotonin that could contribute to PMDD." it says. Well slap my ass. Define "many"....2....4? I could probably find a couple doctors who believe Elvis is alive. Serotonin "could" contribute to PMDD? Well the author of this blog "could" be Elvis himself according to the "many" doctors who "believe" he is alive. How about some clinical studies? If we dig into the official Sarafem prescribing information, we'll find that 38% reduction number I cited. We'll also see that a placebo achieved a 30% reduction. Translation into English: You're paying $1331.88 a year for an 8% chance that your symptoms will go down. Not go away, an 8% chance they will not be as bad as they were before.

Oh...and the prescribing info also says that the lower 10 milligram strength "was not shown to be significantly more effective than placebo." That doesn't stop them from offering it to you at $117.13 a month though. A price $6.14 HIGHER than the slightly effective 20mg dose.

So as we can see, taking Prozac doesn't mean you're crazy. Taking Sarafem probably does.