In his latest salvo against the pricing practices of large drug companies, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen published a new study November 8 showing drug makers charge less for animal drugs than for equivalent medicines for people. The study found, for instance, that a month's supply of SmithKline Beecham's widely used Augmentin, whose active ingredients are the antibiotic amoxicillin and clavulinic acid, costs 163 percent less at a veterinary pharmacy than at drugstores for people.

Allen, a Maine Democrat who is chief sponsor of a House of Representatives bill that aims to lower drug costs for senior citizens and others without prescription drug insurance, said the study was the latest evidence that U.S pharmaceutical companies? pricing practices are unfair. The most profitable industry in the country is charging the highest prices in the world to the people who can least afford it. No matter how you slice it, seniors and others who don?t have prescription drug coverage pay by far the highest prices in the world.

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