These Online Pharmacies Might Save Consumers Millions: Study

Ordering popular generic prescription medications on Amazon might be cheaper than your local pharmacy, a new study finds. 

One out of five commonly prescribed medications, such as drugs for high blood pressure or heart disease, were comparatively cheaper on Amazon Pharmacy or Good Rx Gold — a membership-based drug savings program.

Researchers believe the potential out-of-pocket savings are significant. From Amazon Pharmacy, the cumulative savings could be roughly $969 million, and from GoodRx Gold, savings could be as high as $1.83 billion overall. 

Researchers at the University of Toledo College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, who published their findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at 20 popular generic drugs and compared the prices that people paid out-of-pocket in 2020 with current prices for the same drugs listed under the two online pharmacies. 

The study included both insured and uninsured people; and a variety of programs including government-subsidized plans such as Medicaid. 

“The takeaway really is that these discount card programs are potentially a tool to reduce the out-of-pocket burden for Americans,” lead author Pranav M. Patel, PharmD, a pharmacist and researcher at the University of Toledo told NBC News. 

Coughing up cash for the cost-prohibitive but necessary, and sometimes, life-saving medications can often place a huge burden on consumers. 

For instance, in the United States, drug prices are nearly two times more than what the same prescription drugs would cost in other non-U.S. countries, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly three in 10 Americans have a hard time affording their medications due to cost.

However, online pharmacies like Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs and Amazon Pharmacy continue to grow in popularity because they are striving to offer more affordable and alternative pricing options, especially for those who are paying out-of-pocket or uninsured. 

Online pharmacies are able to do this because they directly negotiate with drugmakers in the pharmaceutical industry. This allows them to sell generic medications directly to consumers for a slightly higher price than the original purchase price. Overall, this creates a pathway to bargain for significantly cheaper drug prices for consumers. 

At Cost Plus Drugs, the company asks consumers to pay 15% more than the drug’s original price. And according to the GoodRx Gold website, over 1,000 popular prescription medications are available for less than $10. 

But there’s a catch. 

Patel noted that the monthly membership costs of some of the discount card programs over time could exceed the savings consumers might potentially have by skipping brick-and-mortar pharmacies. (GoodRx Gold, on its website, claims that “savings with Gold will exceed the cost of monthly memberships.”)

Moreover, some programs don’t accept health insurance or work with your insurance provider to deduct your out-of-pocket drug costs.

GoodRx Gold monthly plan will cost $9.99 for individuals and $19.99 for families. However, this program doesn’t work with insurance. Neither does Cost Plus Drugs. Amazon Pharmacy, on the other hand, accepts most insurances. 

The study’s findings and online pharmacy tactics are similar to what the Biden administration has been pushing for through the Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law last year in August 2022. The news also comes about a week after the Biden Administration announced efforts to negotiate Medicare prices on 10 popular drugs.