Best Priced Rx

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y., July 09, 2007 /PRNewswire/ -- An analysis of hundreds of thousands of online searches for drug prices made on the website PharmacyChecker.com this year found that drugs for erectile dysfunction (ED) were among those most often checked. In fact, all three major ED drugs, Viagra (Pfizer), Cialis (Lilly), and Levitra (GSK/Bayer), ranked in the top 10 out of nearly 9,000 medications for which consumers searched.

Although savings of up to 40% are possible by shopping online for ED drugs, even greater savings, about 66% on average, is available for most other popular brand name drugs. PharmacyChecker.com's president, Tod Cooperman, MD, speculated, "The amazing popularity of the ED drugs in online searches is probably driven by a combination of factors. First, these are among the most expensive pills to buy - about $10 to $16 each - but are often not covered by insurance, so it's very worthwhile to price-comparison shop. Second, the anonymity offered by the web spares the embarrassment some men feel going into their local pharmacy to check prices and purchase ED products."

After drugs for erectile dysfunction, cholesterol-lowering products were the most searched drugs, with Lipitor leading the group as it has since 2004. Some of the biggest changes in search popularity since last year were seen with Levitra, which moved to 8th position from 26th, Propecia (Merck) a hair- growth drug, which moved up to 7th position from 16th, and Lexapro (Forrest), which moved from 15th to 10th to became the most searched for anti-depressant, replacing Zoloft (Pfizer) which was ranked 6th last year and is now 13th. No generic drug made the top 10, but fluoxetine (the generic form of Prozac) was number 12.

Despite many recent news reports about controlled substances being sold online, only one controlled substance was in the top 50 most searched drugs -- Ambien (Sanofi Aventis). It ranked number 44, down from 35 in 2006. The next most searched controlled substance was the diet drug Phentermine, ranked 53 this year, moving up from 83 in 2006.