A $20 Over-the-Counter Drug in Europe Requires a Prescription and $800 in the U.S.
7th December 2025
A month’s supply of Miebo, Bausch & Lomb’s prescription dry eye drug, costs $800 or more in the U.S. before insurance. But the same drug — sold as EvoTears — has been available over-the-counter (OTC) in Europe since 2015 for about $20. I ordered it online from an overseas pharmacy for $32 including shipping, and it was delivered in a week.
This is, of course, both shocking and unsurprising. A 2021 RAND study found U.S. prescription drug prices are, on average, more than 2.5 times higher than in 32 other developed nations. Miebo exemplifies how some pharmaceutical companies exploit regulatory loopholes and patent protections, prioritizing profits over patients, eroding trust in health care. But there is a way to fix this loophole.
Note that the problem isn’t with Bausth & Lomb, as the author suggests, but rather with the regulatory scheme imposdd by the FDA in the U.S. that makes such shenanigans profitable. Too many modern people, steeped in proglodyte indoctrination, accept the government schema as a given and then look for scapegoats in the business world. Companies must comply with the law, and if the law gives them a path of advantage they’re going to take it. The problem is not with the companies but with the law.
December 8th, 2025 at 04:47
Over a decade ago I had a conversation w/ my pharmacist – I was on a PPI maintenance drug. He was REQUIRED to charge me 10-dollars for the refill due to my insurance carrier. However my actual cost if I was a cash-customer would be less than 5-dollars.
The entire industry, from top to bottom, has been completely and thoroughly corrupted by money changers and charlatans. No, I’m not saying that a few well placed legal tweaks will fix anything. Quite the opposite. THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY, FROM TOP TO BOTTOM, IS FUCKED.
Like, so far gone it can’t be fixed, you have to start over entirely. Trying to fix it is like asking how much sewage would be safe to keep in your drinking water.
December 8th, 2025 at 10:14
You don’t even have to compare domestic prices to overseas prices to find outrageous disparities. I almost never need prescription drugs, but a few years ago I needed cataract surgery, and they make you get your post-surgical eyedrops before you show up at the hospital (because it would make too much sense for them to provide the eyedrops there and save you a needless trip to the pharmacy). Before my first surgery, the people at the hospital asked me where I wanted the prescription sent, and not knowing any better, I gave them the name of the pharmacy that was closest to my house. When I went to pick up the prescription, which consisted of two tiny bottles of drops, I was charged three hundred dollars. Medicare doesn’t cover that stuff, and I don’t have supplemental insurance, so that was three hundred dollars out of pocket. A few weeks later, before my second surgery, they asked me if I wanted the prescription sent to the same place, and on a whim I said, “No, send it to WalMart.” The prescription was identical to the first one, but at WalMart it was only forty dollars. Sometimes it pays to shop around.
December 9th, 2025 at 06:14
Indeed it does. I am using prescription eyedrops to prevent glaucoma, and the retail price for a half-ounce bottle is $538. Fortunately it’s covered under my insurance, and my co-pay is ‘only’ $94—if I get them through the Amazon Pharmacy.