To the Editor:—I was detailed today by telephone, telegram, mailing, and in person on the United States release of griseofulvin. According to two different detail men, this is to cost the patient 40 and 60 cents a tablet. (My previous experience is that drugs cost more than detail men say, but leave us accept this figure.) One brochure recommends eight tablets daily, the other four. By wiggling my slide rule, for a "normal" course of therapy over a six-month period, the patient can spend $864.00 for 1,440 tablets of griseofulvin!
In the May, 1959, Brit. J. Dermat., griseofulvin is advertised at a retail price of $8.40 (60 shillings) per hundred, or $78.40 (560 shillings) per thousand. This would bring the cost of 1,440 tablets to a total of $113.00 in Great Britain. Since the round-trip airline fare from New York to London is only $462.00, a patient who plans