This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1.
Where a price includes consultation, device and follow-up, saying so makes a comparison possible. Most quoted figures do not.
The literature is thinner on this than the confidence in the thread implies.
Bulk pricing tiers are published by some suppliers and negotiated by others, and asking costs nothing.
If this contradicts something upthread, the upthread version may well be the better one.
Where I part company with post #30, and it is a narrow parting.
I disagree with the framing of list price versus negotiated price above, and I think it is a substantive disagreement rather than a terminological one. Setting out why, so it can be checked.
The reasoning depends on an assumption that is doing a lot of work and is never stated. If the assumption holds, the conclusion follows. I do not think it holds generally.
Post #33 is the version of this I will quote in future. One addition.
Source for the list price versus negotiated price figure, since it was asked for. It is in the discussion rather than the abstract, which is why the version circulating is stronger than the paper is.
Reading the surrounding paragraph is worth the two minutes. The authors are more careful than their summarisers.
Larger orders shift risk as well as price, because more of your material then comes from one lot.
On balance I think that is right, and I would not bet much on it.
I had written a reply contradicting post #33 and deleted it. Here is what survived.
I keep a log for list price versus negotiated price specifically because my memory of it turned out to be systematically wrong in one direction. Six weeks of notes cost nothing and settled it.
For anyone finding this later: the short answer on list price versus negotiated price is that it depends on one thing, and the rest of the thread is people identifying which thing.
The cost of an independent submission is worth stating in these threads, because it is the main reason people do not do it.
Price differences within a market are usually about scale, documentation and logistics rather than about anything mysterious.
I had read the opposite somewhere and cannot now find where, which tells me something.
This follows post #41 rather than contradicting it.
Posting my list price versus negotiated price numbers with the method attached so they can be discounted properly. Uncontrolled, unblinded, and collected by someone who wanted a particular answer.
One caution on list price versus negotiated price: everything above assumes the underlying documentation is what it claims to be. That assumption is doing real work and is rarely stated.
I had written a reply contradicting post #44 and deleted it. Here is what survived.
I have been on both sides of the list price versus negotiated price argument in this category within eighteen months, which should tell you how strong the evidence for either side is.
Picking up post #46: that is the part I would want checked first.
Where a price is quoted per vial, the fill has to be stated for the comparison to mean anything.
List prices versus negotiated prices: the price a pharmaceutical company publishes and the price an insurance company or pharmacy actually pays differ substantially. List price is not what anyone pays.
A guess, clearly labelled as one.
Pharmacy acquisition cost: a pharmacy pays less than the patient pays, even at insurance rates. That margin is where the pharmacy's costs and profit live.
One more caveat and then I will stop qualifying: the sample selected itself.
Taking post #51 at face value and following it one step further.
I read the earlier replies on list price versus negotiated price twice before writing this, because I had assumed the opposite and wanted to be sure I was disagreeing with what was said rather than what I expected.
The honest answer on list price versus negotiated price is that it depends, and the useful part is the list of what it depends on. Four items, in rough order of how much they matter.
Most people get the first two right and then argue about the fourth.
This settles it for me, at least until somebody posts a reason it should not.
This follows post #55 rather than contradicting it.
On list price versus negotiated price I would separate what is worth knowing from what is worth acting on. The first list is long and the second is short, and conflating them is how threads get heated.
Post #55 describes the usual case. This is about the unusual one.
A cheaper option that arrives slowly has a cost in the form of running out, and people rarely price that.
Adding the measurement that post #59 says would settle it.
Cost per milligram is the only comparison that survives format differences, but even then it needs care. A pen and a vial are not the same product and cannot be compared on price per milligram alone because dead volume, wastage, and number of doses actually obtainable differ.