New Dosages of Old Drugs Are Used to Raise Their Prices

New York Times, February 25, 2015

Doctors have long prescribed a muscle relaxant called cyclobenzaprine to treat injuries like back strains, using five- or 10-milligram pills.

But doctors who also dispense the drugs they prescribe directly to patients have recently embraced a new pill that contains 7.5 milligrams of the muscle relaxant. There is no evidence to suggest that the pill works any better except, perhaps, for doctors and the middlemen supplying them. They can charge $3.45, or about five times as much as a five- or 10-milligram pill.

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