I am trying to find out the average wholesale price of Sertuerner 500
mg in Germany.  Sertuerner is a calcium carbonate formulation similar
to TUMS in the US that is used as a phosphate binder in dialysis
patients

Hi!

The name of the product you're looking for is probably
"Calciumcarbonat 500 Sertuerner". Medication prices in Germany for
pharmacy-only medication are fixed according to a law called
"Arzneimittelpreisverordnung".

Most of the medication is bought by people with state-regulated health
insurances. And there are only 3 prices for medication depending on
packaging size for the people buying them.

N1 (small) packs cost 4 Euros
N2 (medium) packs cost 4,50 Euros
N3 (large) packs cost 5 Euros

The actual price of the medication is covered by the insurance and is
usually totally unknown to the patient.

Another problem in locating the information that you requested is the
ban on advertising for pharmacies and doctors in Germany. Add to that
a ban on internet sales of medication (because of the potential for
abuse and a fear that patients might not get enough advice from
professionals about their medication).

However - there is an online pharmacy that actually supplies
medication to German customers from the Netherlands (which is a big
issue to pharmacists in Germany). I checked their (usually competitve)
prices on the requested medication:

Calciumcarbonat 500 Sertuerner   200 pices   16.17 Euro
Calciumcarbonat 500 Sertuerner    50 pices    6.91 Euro
Calciumcarbonat 500 Sertuerner   100 pices   11.17 Euro

Source:
https://www.0800docmorris.com/Apps/WebObjects/0800DocMorris.woa/66/wo/DjNLvJgo0NoPsGH7l7eDd0/1.0.5.1

Because the medication is actually perscription free I was able to
locate it in the database of a big pharmacy portal (kind of a co-op of
different pharmacies). You can't really order it there - you can only
tell a local pharmacy to order it for you, so they'll have it in stock
once you get there:

Calciumcarbonat 500 Sertürner N3 / 100 pices 11,40 EUR 

I hope this information helps. If you require prices for different
package sizes than the ones I supplied, don't hesitate to request a
clarification. (If you need help translating any of the German on
those pages, just ask and I'll try to translate for you. A usable
translation aid can be found at "http://babelfish.altavista.com" )

voyager-ga

Source:
https://www.pharmacy-point.de/reservation/reservation_step3_1.jhtml?_DARGS=%2Freservation%2Freservation_step2_4.jhtml.1

(if that link doesn't work anymore, you'll have to enter your search
in the page "http://www.pharmacy-point.de/reservation/reservation_step1.jhtml".
The best search term would be "Calciumcarbonat" and you have to look
for "rezeptfreie Produkte")

Search strategy:

Calciumcarbonat 500 Sertuerner
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Calciumcarbonat+500+Sertuerner

Additional Information:

Information about the medication and a list of alternatives (all in
German, but you can at least see comparable products in a table at the
bottom)
http://dkv.netdoktor.de/medikamente/showpreparation.asp?id=6390

DocMorris - online pharmacy from the Netherlands delivering to Germany
http://www.docmorris.com

Sertürner Arzneimittel (German)
http://www.sertuerner.de/Seiten-deutsch/index.htm

Lichtwer Pharma AG (German) - Parent of Sertürner and also
manufacturer of related drugs
http://www.lichtwer.de/o_index.html

---

Clarification of Answer by voyager-ga on 12 Jul 2002 18:45 PDT

I just saw that I forgot to add the calculation scheme for the
wholesale price. As prices are basically fixed that calculation is
directly take out of the law text I quoted above (
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~vetppt/recht/AMPreisVO.pdf ). You can see a
calculation table and an example calculation at
"http://www.aponet.de/apotheke/ampreise/07_03_02_00_00_c_AMpreise_ebau.html".

I will do the calculations for you for

Calciumcarbonat 500 Sertürner N3 / 100 pices 11,40 EUR  

Total: 11,40 Euro
MwSt (tax: 16%): ~1,57 Euro
Pharmacy (32,4% of pretax price of 9,83 Euro): ~3,18 Euro
Wholesale Price: ~6,65 Euro

At this price a wholesale company would be allowed to take about 15,6%
of the price (it bought the medication from the manufacturer) as
profit.

I hope the information is complete now. Sorry that I forgot it in the
first post!

voyager-ga