Why is Latuda So Expensive?

Why is Latuda So Expensive?

Latuda’s fairly recent FDA approval in the USA combined with the lack of pharmaceutical price regulation and barriers to affordable healthcare in the United States cause sky-high prices for Latuda.

If you believe Latuda is too expensive, you’re probably right.

At NorthWestPharmacy.com, it’s our mission to provide a safe, easy, and affordable way for Americans to get the medications they need.

We’re also dedicated to providing the educational materials you need to make informed choices about your healthcare.

Here’s what you need to know about Latuda – and specific ways you can save up to 82% on Latuda’s cost.

What is Latuda?

Latuda (lurasidone) is a prescription mental health medication that treats schizophrenia or bipolar depression.

While taking Latuda, patients will benefit from more balanced brain chemistry. This can help patients feel less depressed, if they’ve been suffering from depressive symptoms.

If patients are managing schizophrenic symptoms, Latuda can help them organize their thoughts more effectively.

Latuda provides these benefits by regulating two powerful mental health chemicals – serotonin and dopamine.

By helping patients establish and sustain healthy levels of these two chemicals, Latuda can boost a patient’s mental health.

What Is Latuda Used for?

Doctors prescribe Latuda to treat schizophrenia and depression.

Schizophrenia patients taking Latuda should be at least 13 years old; patients with depression or bipolar disorder should be at least ten years old before starting this medication.

What Are Possible Latuda Side Effects?

Latuda can cause drowsiness or sleepiness. This effect is compounded if patients take both Latuda and alcohol simultaneously, so it’s generally recommended that patients avoid drinking while taking Latuda.

While sleepiness is the most common Latuda side effect, there are others. Some to keep in mind include:

What Should You Know Before Taking Latuda?

Grapefruit (and grapefruit juice) can increase the blood concentration of Latuda (and several other prescription drugs).

This makes a patient’s experience with Latuda much less reliable and can even increase the intensity of unwanted side effects. As a result, you should stay away from grapefruit products while you’re taking Latuda.

As Latuda can make you sleepy, you should avoid operating heavy machinery while on Latuda.

Additionally, as one of the side effects of Latuda is dehydration, you should up your water intake, avoid overexertion, and avoid excess sun exposure while taking this medication.

Latuda Cost

In America, one 30-count bottle of Latuda can retail for approximately $1,500.00.

As most patients take Latuda once daily, this cost can be prohibitive.

At this price, your cost for Latuda could be around $18,000.00 per year!

Insurance may help with that cost, if you have insurance coverage for prescription drugs. But, in that case, your mental healthcare is in the hands of your insurance company – which may be a self-interested entity that might not prioritize your financial wellness.

Even if your Latuda costs are affordable now with insurance, that doesn’t mean that your insurance company won’t someday raise your premiums, co-pays, or drop coverage for Latuda altogether.

Americans who seek a more affordable Latuda cost can turn to international drugstores and online Canadian pharmacies for reliable lower prices. Buying Canadian drugs online or internationally sourced medications can be much less expensive.

At NorthWestPharmacy.com, you can buy a one-month supply of Latuda for around $265.00 (up to 82% savings).

Lurasidone Cost

Lurasidone is the active ingredient in Latuda. As a generic medication, it can provide a similar effect as the brand-name medication.

However, it’s slightly different in its inactive ingredients.

Generic medications differ at least slightly from their brand-name counterparts. Often, generic manufacturers do this by using different buffer and filler ingredients. It’s possible in some cases to have a poor reaction to a filler ingredient in a generic and zero issues with the brand-name drug or vice versa.

Other times, doctors prefer to prescribe a specific brand-name medication (even writing “no substitution allowed” on the prescription itself). If this happens, pharmacies cannot give you a lower-cost generic instead of a higher-cost brand name medication.

If you can tolerate generic lurasidone, you can buy it through NorthWestPharmacy.com. (Since generic lurasidone was only recently approved in the United States, it’s relatively hard to find there.)

Here, a one-month supply of lurasidone starts at around $120.00.

When you look at that lower cost per-month of treatment, you might wonder what goes into Latuda’s ten-times-as-expensive price.

This leads us to ask another important question.

Is Latuda Too Expensive?

To properly discuss whether Latuda is too expensive, it’s essential to consider the costs of living with schizophrenia and depression due to bipolar disorder.

The High Cost of Living with Schizophrenia (and Other Mental Health Conditions)

Schizophrenia affects the way patients can interpret their reality. Those suffering from schizophrenia experience delusions, disordered thinking, hallucinations, and other disabling mental effects.

Depression due to bipolar disorder is no less serious.

Bipolar disorder affects a patient’s concentration, activity levels, mood, and energy. While there are various types of bipolar disorder (the most serious of which can be associated with periods of mania), all types of bipolar disorder can cause the patient to struggle with depression.

Depression is an often-severe disorder that causes patients to feel sad, hopeless, or indifferent. It can devastate a patient’s quality of life and ability to relate to others.

In 2020, it was estimated that 1.1% of the American adult population (nearly 3 million people) suffered from schizophrenia.

Approximately 40% of those individuals do not receive reliable, consistent treatment. Nearly 4.4% of American adults (four times the number of schizophrenia patients) struggle with some form of bipolar disorder and related depression throughout their lives.

Both the patients themselves and the United States pay an incredible amount to manage care for these mental health conditions.

According to the Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance, in 2020, schizophrenia cost the United States just over $280B.

More than that: The same report noted that the lifetime cost to the American economy for each schizophrenia patient (diagnosed at age 25) was about $92,000.00 per year.

Most of that cost isn’t healthcare and medication. Instead, the bulk of the hit to the economy consists of lost productivity, indirect care costs, and even supportive housing for those in need.

Compared to that, some may argue that paying $1,500.00 per month for Latuda isn’t too expensive.

We disagree. $1,500.00 per month for one medication is clearly out of budget for most Americans.

But here at NorthWestPharmacy.com, we can sell Latuda for far less. So why is the American cost for this medication so high?

Why is Latuda So Expensive in America?

There are many structural reasons why prescription drugs are far more expensive in the United States than elsewhere.

We’ll describe two of the most important structural reasons here.

Firstly, the American government does not regulate prescription drug prices. In other countries – such as Canada – there is a review board that determines the line between reasonable and excessive prescription drug prices.

If a drug exceeds the determined limits, the Canadian government can force the drug company to reduce its price.

In America, this type of negotiating and regulation from the government doesn’t exist.

The result?

Prescription drug prices are set by drug manufacturers and insurance companies. Neither is particularly interested in low prices for American patients.

Secondly: The American drug approval process is perfectly primed to create monopolies.

To get a drug approved by the FDA, drug manufacturers need to perform an extensive series of preclinical and clinical trials. At the end of this lengthy (12+ year) process, the drug manufacturer receives a patent that disallows other manufacturers from making meds with the same active ingredient, that perform the same function.

These patents generally last for about twenty years, during which time the drug manufacturer essentially has zero competition for their drug. If it’s a good one, they can charge whatever they want for it – and they do.

Under these circumstances, it’s no wonder that Latuda is too expensive.

Fortunately, you have options.

First, you could consider a different medication.

You also have the option to consider buying your required prescription medications from an international online pharmacy or Canadian drugstore that safely sources low-cost medications and ships them to American patients.

Drugs Similar to Latuda

Popular medications that, like Latuda, are often prescribed to treat schizophrenia or bipolar depression include:

Each of these medications has its pros and cons. Your doctor will help you decide which is best for you. To help you make this decision, here’s some more relevant information about how Latuda works.

Latuda FAQ's

Looking to Save on Latuda Costs? We’re Here to Help

Whether you’re looking for low Latuda costs, affordable lurasidone costs, or other types of mental health medication, NorthWestPharmacy.com is committed to providing practical support.

We have comprehensive lists of anti-depressants and anti-psychotics available for purchase, along with updated information and price lists for all medications on our site. Through NorthWestPharmacy.com, you can also benefit from speedy shipping to your front door, too – which saves you time and money in addition to our low costs.

Buying medication online, especially expensive mental health medication, can be stressful. We staff a seven-day-a-week call center with friendly, knowledgeable representatives ready to help you with your order and pharmacists available Monday through Friday, you can call M-F to answer any questions you have about your prescription.

Call our team today at 1-866-539-5330 for more information about our safe online Canadian pharmacy and international drugstore or to place an order. We look forward to helping you get your needed medications at an affordable price.