Website shows prescription drug prices vary wildly even within one county

• New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said his office has created an interactive Web site to help New Yorkers comparison shop for prescription drugs, following a statewide survey showing widely varying prices at pharmacies.
• Spitzer on Tuesday said the Web Site, NYAGRx.org, is the first of its kind in the nation.
• "By posting the prices of common prescription drugs at pharmacies across the state on our new Web site, we hope to make it easier for all consumers to comparison shop and keep their costs as low as possible," Spitzer said at a news conference in Albany.
• "If you see a lower price for one of your medications on our Web site, you may want to ask your pharmacy if they will match the lower price," Spitzer said.
• Spitzer said his office in July surveyed 170 randomly selected drugstores in 25 counties across the state to determine prices of the 25 most commonly prescribed drugs.
• He said retail prices for the drugs sometimes differed sharply from drugstore to drugstore in a county or region.
• For instance, he said the retail price in the Albany region for a month's supply of Merck & Co. arthritis drug Vioxx, at the standard dose of 25 milligrams, ranged from $82.49 to $114.29.
• In the New York City area, the price of a month's supply of Aventis' allergy drug Allegra, in the standard 60 milligram dosage form, ranged from $47.20 to $144.97, Spitzer said.