[NittanyLion]

On the other hand, I just picked up a new antibiotic that cost $179.

I truly believe much of that cost is driven by government interference in the R&D and approval process. So much capital and time is needed to bring a drug to market that the costs seem exorbitant.

[NautiNurse]

With an antibiotic costing $179, I certainly hope a culture and sensivity of the infection was done to determine whether that drug was truly necessary. I would have insisted on it.

Overuse of antibiotics unnecessarily has resulted in bacterial resistance to much more cost effective antibiotics. Physicians have been writing prescriptions for years in an effort to placate patients with viral illnesses that do not respond to antibiotics. In many cases a placebo would have been better in the long run.