I went to Shopper's Drug Mart at the beginning of the school year to purchase 4 Epipen Juniors for daughter who has severe anaphylactic reactions to nuts (for her classroom, her school bag, her after school care, my purse). When I went to pick it up, I saw that they were $147 each. I asked the pharmacist what the dispensing fee at Shopper's was. She said, "$10.22, " which is on par with other pharmacies. When I went home, i saw that one of the Epipens expired in 6 months, and another in 8 months. So, they didn't even give me Epipens that would have lasted me a year. When I called them to complain, they said that it's too late since I already left the pharmacy with the medications and that they couldn't give my money back or give me another Epipen that would have lasted a year. Later, I spoke with a pharmacist friend who said that a her pharmacy, the usual cost for Epipens is only $100. I called Shopper's back and asked them specifically what the dispensing fee on Epipens were.. and they said that Shoppers will always charge the maximum dispensing fee allowable by the government, and for injectables, that fee is $50. When I told him that the other Shoppers pharmacist told me that it was only $10.22, he said that what she said might be technically true, but that they would have "up-charged" the medication by $40, and then added the $10.22 dispensing fee. At this point, I was infuriated.By the way, I didn't get any counselling or any extra information that would have justified the EXTRA fee. All they did was slap on a sticker. This is ridiculous. I also don't understand why there isn't a clear break-down for the consumers of what exactly is the price of the medication and what is the cost of the dispensing fee. I will be taking my business elsewhere.
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