Itchy and Scratchy

Oh, the agony of da feet.  Or at least the discomfort.  Well, mild discomfort, at least.  I mean, I didn’t even notice it until that awful day….

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My podiatrist gently broke the news to me – the news that no one ever wants to hear.  His caring, sympathetic eyes gazed up at me over my bare tootsies:  “looks like you have a little Athlete’s Foot, here, Rick”

Curses!    Could this really be happening to me?  I mean, I always shower every day, and wear clean socks.  I never walk around barefoot.  How could this happen to me?!!

As I rapidly passed through the varying stages – Denial, Anger, Bargaining and finally Acceptance (this all happened while I put my socks back on), the doctor delivered some positive news.  He asked if I had prescription coverage.  When I told him that I did, he smiled and handed me a prescription savings card for Naftin Cream, and a script for the same.  “This will clear it up shortly” he told me smiling.  “And with this prescription card, there will be no out of pocket expense”.

Thank God and Country for this minor miracle in a tube.  Thanks to Naftin, and my prescription coverage, I didn’t have to worry about a future plagued by itchy feet.

Now, I have been working professionally with the Podiatry field for some 25 years now.  I knew that the go-to drug for many years was Lotrimin.  So, where did this upstart Naftin come into the picture?

First of all, Naftin isn’t cheap.  The best price I could find online for this fungus-fighter is $330.00 a tube.  This means, of course, that, in spite of my discount card, my health insurance carrier was paying out the wazoo for this stuff.  In fact, without that savings card, I would have had to pony-up a $60 co-pay for my 60 grams of Naftin.   But, like most people, my feet are important to me.  I use them almost every day of my life.  Nothing but the best for my two not-so-little buddies!

I was therefore very upset to discover that Naftin wasn’t even the best treatment for my fungal foot funk.  Statistically, ol’ reliable Lotrimin was.  Naftin isn’t even the second best choice – it actually comes in a distant third in the battle against Tinea Pedis. 

So why didn’t my Podiatrist prescribe Lotrimin to me instead of the less-effective Naftin?  Well, there is a VERY GOOD reason for this.  Lotrimin has a very serious fault.  The patent expired on this one-time champion drug, and it is now available over the counter for a couple of dollars.  The economics just don’t work out.

Of course, up in the Great White North (Canada, that is) Lotrimin is still king.  That’s because both Lotrimin and Naftin are available over the counter,  both for the same price as a couple of Maple Sugar Donuts at Tim Hortons.  And who would pay a Toonie  for a tube of third rate foot cream when they could get a better working cream for the same price?  Naftin isn’t a big seller with the Labatt Blue crowd.

Luckily for Merz, maker of Naftin. It’s still a prescription only product down here in the lower 48.  Merz can still pay its reps to visit podiatry clinics bearing gifts of free lunch and discount prescription cards, in order to convince them to continue to write scripts for their $330.00 underperformer.

Who says that the US Healthcare system in this country is broken?   Certainly not Merz Pharmaceuticals.


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