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Comment by BadHumans | Hacker News Reader

> After redditing i found a thread where you can find a manufacturers coupon on the manufacturers website. After knowing this seemingly secret hidden trick the medicine was $50. My doctor didnt know about that, my insurance didnt either. Absolutely insane.

This is GoodRx's business model in a nutshell. I used them when I didn't have insurance and saved a ton on medicine.

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Some manufacturer coupons/copay programs work a little differently than GoodRx—specifically the ones that you can only use if you're insured.

Those ones work like this: HelpfulDrug costs $2000/month. Your insurance company will pay $1500/month, and wants to pass the remaining $500 onto you, but that's too expensive for you to pay.

The manufacturers of HelpfulDrug see this and would rather not lose our on a deal, so they make you an offer: as long as your insurance pays the $1500 as promised, they'll tell insurance to waive $450 worth of your portion. You only pay $50, and the HelpfulDrug manufacturer still earns $1500, most of which is pure profit anyway.

i just looked up the medication on goodrx [1]. still listed as ~$5000 when there is still a $50 coupon [2]

[1] https://www.goodrx.com/dificid

[2] https://www.merckconnect.com/dificid/coupon/

Interesting I Google'd this and it costs NHS in UK £1,350 GBP aka $1,719.22 USD for same 20 pills at same dosage (document dated 2019)

https://gmmmg.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Fidaxomicin-...

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