Study author Dr. Caleb Alexander says that pharmaceutical companies give free samples for the new drugs they are selling. He added that these medicines, while helping patients' wallets in the short term, will be continued in a longer term and the patients may use newer more costly medicines than their older and less expensive alternative.
The study includes 5,709 patients followed for two years. Patients who do not get medicine samples spent $178 of their own money over six months on prescriptions. Those who received samples spent $244 on prescriptions during the six months they got the free medications and $212 in the six months afterward.
The pharmaceutical companies indicate that patients who are poor or uninsured gain from free drug samples.
