Mark Newberry - April 11 Speaker
Our speaker on April 11 was Mark Newberry, the owner of Tarrytown Pharmacy. He has been the owner since 2004, and the independent pharmacy is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Mr. Newberry talked to us about the current costs of prescription drugs. There are more high end expensive drugs coming to the market that are very effective for some illnesses but they have caused health insurance costs to skyrocket. Consumers can save money by using generic drugs instead of name-brand drugs, if available. Generic drugs are 82% of drugs on the market now, as a lot of drugs have come off patent recently. Mr. Newberry pointed out that public trust towards pharmacists has eroded because of the cost increases of drugs. However, pharmacies have zero control over pricing because of managed insurance plans. Mr. Newberry also discussed the idea of pharmacists taking over for primary care physicians in limited areas such as testing for flu and then prescribing the appropriate mediation. A clinic within a pharmacy could take care of these types of illnesses. Mr. Newberry also briefly discussed the fact that drugs are much cheaper in other countries because of price regulations, but in the U.S. the companies can charge the price they want causing us to pay much more.
