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Members of the Tops Generic Prescription Drug Program will be able to buy 30-day prescriptions of select generic medications for $3.99 at Tops Markets pharmacies whether or not they have insurance. The members will also receive discounts on thousands of other generic and premium prescription drugs.
The year-long memberships cost $20 per person or $35 per family. Consumers can sign up for the program at any Tops pharmacy, where they can also find a list of the more than 350 generic drugs included in the program. Non-members will continue to pay their insurance copay or the retail price of the prescription.
The $3.99 list includes commonly prescribed diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol medications such as metformin, nitroglycerin and pravastatin.
Neither Wegmans, Wal-Mart nor Target require an additional membership fee to access their discounted prescription drug programs. However, the additional fee allows Tops to offer 90 percent of its brand name drugs at a discount to members, as well as a discount on more than 50 percent of the generic drugs not listed in the $3.99 formulary, said Frank Wolff, Tops director of pharmacy.
"The fee allows us to offer significant savings above and beyond the lists [of discounted generic drugs] offered by our competitors," said Wolff, who noted most other lists cover about 30 percent of prescription drugs. "But what about the other 70 percent? We wanted to be able to offer savings on all the drugs people depend on every day."
Under the new program, for example, the anti-clot brand drug Plavix would sell for $149.49 for 30 days. The drug normally retails for $174.29. Lipitor, which retails for $150.59, would sell for $128.92. In addition, Tops will also offer savings on things like insulin, for which there is no generic alternative, and sterile syringes.
Tops had been piloting the program at Rochester stores since December. Positive feedback and high enrollment prompted the company to accelerate the program's expansion to all 64 Tops pharmacies.
"We see a lot of customers who are struggling to make ends meet, deciding between buying food or buying medications," said Colleen Domm, a pharmacist at Tops' Maple Road location. "This will help people afford to take their medications the way their doctors prescribed."
Tops President and CEO Frank Curci said offering a price break during difficult economic times would give customers "peace of mind," especially when "staggering" numbers of Americans are without prescription drug coverage.
Pharmacy purchases will also count towards Tops' Bonus Points program, where shoppers earn cents off per gallon for gasoline purchases.
The announcement of Tops' program expansion comes shortly after Wegmans pharmacies implemented a program offering select generic drugs at $4 for a 30-day supply and $10 for a 90-day supply. Wal-Mart was the first to offer $4 generic drugs, with Target pharmacies following soon after.
schristmann@buffnews.com
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