Why Costco drugs so cheap

There aren't coupons for prescription drugs, but Costco (COST) is probably wishing it could print up some "$749 off" inserts right about now.

Consumer Reports went shopping at 200 pharmacies across the country for a month's supply of five prescription drugs that just went generic: Actos for diabetes, Lexapro for depression, Singulair for asthma, Plavix for blood thinning, and Lipitor for high cholesterol.

What they found was a $749 difference -- that's 447% -- between the $916 price tagat CVS (CVS) and the $167 that Costco charged for the same five drugs. For generic Lipitor alone CVS charged $150to Costco's $17. The generic Lexapro found at CVS for $126 could be had at Costco for $7.

Why such a big difference? Because CVS, Rite Aid (RAD) and Walgreen (WAG) draw most of their profits from the pharmacy, while Costco,Sam's Club and other discount stores consider their pharmacies throw-ins that help bulk up foot traffic.

CVS, in particular, also factors in the cost of drive-through windows, automated prescription refill systems, prescription consultation and 24-hour pharmacies that Costco's Monday-Saturday servicelacks.

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Why Costco drugs so cheap