Program lowers price of generic drugs

Nearly everyone has heard stories about elderly people splitting their prescription pills in half to make them last longer or skipping doses because of the skyrocketing cost of medication.

But Jake Wilson worked for a pharmaceutical company and didn't realize how much drugs were costing his family in Ste. Genevieve, Mo.

Until his father called. Wilson learned his 90-year-old grandmother had been cutting her pills in half.

"I was in the business but didn't put it together until I was sitting at the table with my Grandma adding it all up," said Wilson, vice president of business development at Express Scripts in St. Louis.

After learning that his grandmother spent $200 each month on generic drugs alone, Wilson decided to create a program to help.

Working in patient assistance programs for a pharmaceutical company, Wilson knew there were programs available from drug manufacturers for low-income people and senior adults.

During that afternoon at his grandmother's kitchen table, Wilson learned that his grandmother would qualify for help under his firm's programs. But four of his grandmother's medications were generic and no aid was available.

More than 40 percent of the American population takes a daily prescription drug on a yearly basis. Generic drugs account for only about half the drugs on the market because a drug usually sells for several years before generic competition is allowed.

Wilson's program gives assistance to people who take generic drugs. By his firm's estimates, nearly 108 million people nationwide could be eligible for assistance.

"When I presented the idea, the company thought it was a great idea and a great fit with the mission of the company," Wilson said.

But it took two years to take Rx Outreach from Wilson's idea to a workable program.

"It took a lot of convincing for generic manufacturers. Patient assistance programs were foreign to them," he said. "I was confident that once the generic manufacturers would support it," people would sign up.

And they did. Within a month of the program's launch last month, 80,000 people had joined -- and there's the capacity for at least 10 times that to be enrolled.

Medications offered through the Rx Outreach program are prescribed for arthritis and gout, asthma, breast cancer, cholesterol and high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, heartburn and ulcers and some steroids.

Terry Foster of North Fort Myers, Fla., said her doctor was delighted with the choice of medications Rx Outreach offers.

"He was thrilled with the list," she said. "He was like a kid at Christmas. He didn't have to choose something else because of my budget. I got exactly what he would have prescribed anyway."

Foster pays only $30 every six months for her blood pressure medication, which could easily have cost triple that -- or more -- for a name-brand drug.

Wilson said it is good to give back. "This isn't our core businesses and not what we're going to do to continue to grow, but the chairman agrees it's a great way to give back and help."

Under the Rx Outreach program, qualifying individuals can receive up to six months of their medications for only $30. A three-month supply through Rx Outreach is $18, which could easily cost an average of $100 for the same pills without the program.

Discount pharmacy programs abound for seniors and low-income people but Rx Outreach is for people with income ranging between $23,275 for a single person or $63,000 for a family of six. There are no financial documents required for enrollment.

It's been so easy to get people interested, that Mary Wilson, Jake's mother, has even been offering informational seminars around the region.

Mary Wilson said people are always asking her if this program is for real. "I've almost been mobbed with people," she said of her visits to senior centers. At one senior center, the applications were gone before she could get them all out of the box.

"People love this," she said. "And I'm so proud to say that my son got this program in place. It makes me just bubbly."

For information about Rx Outreach, call (800) 769-3880 or visit www.rxoutreach.com.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126