Cotton-Mouthed Ripoff Being Staged

WASHINGTON, D.C. — One current practice by many drug manufacturers where a change is desirable is not the filling bottles of pills or tablets they’re selling, which doctors recommend. Often a bottle is about one-fifth full, the four-fifths of space above the few pills at the bottom with cotton.

The same is true of many bottle medicines. One famous cough suppressant is sold in bottles so small the buyer must come back two days later for another bottle, since days of dosage is necessary.

Another sales booster is for drug manufacturers to sell pills or tablets which must be taken four or more times daily. In some cases, this is preferred procedure. But in some cases (vitamins) this is selling pills.

The patient who buys a bottle of 60 pills will be out in 20 days. Larger bottles—filled—would save customers money. That’s not the goal of some manufacturers.