ice President Al Gore's claim that his mother-in-law's arthritis medicine costs three times what Gore pays for the same drugs for his dog has been discredited. But even as his claim was questioned, Gore and his campaign insisted that his underlying point remains valid - that humans often pay more for the same drug than their pets.
But of the top 100 brand-name drugs in worldwide sales, only five are prescribed for both humans and animals, according to an analysis done for the Globe by Kathleen D. Jaeger, a Washington attorney who is also a pharmacist.
Even the House Democratic study from which Gore lifted manufacturer wholesale prices and presented them as his family's own retail cost notes that just eight of the 200 best-selling drugs in the United States can be used for both humans and animals.
Those numbers suggest that comparing human and animal drug costs to underscore the high cost of prescription drugs, as Gore has done, is irrelevant except for a tiny fraction of the drugs that are prescribed.
Jaeger, after reviewing actual worldwide sales, said it is also misleading to contrast human and animal drug costs, given how unusual such crossover use is, especially for the drugs that are prescribed most commonly.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of America, already bristling at Gore's attacks on the drug industry, reacted angrily to the data.
''You can tell it's close to November 7, because the political rhetoric has nothing to do with reality,'' said Jeff Trewhitt, the association's spokesman. He said Gore's campaign is trying to come up with ''as many charges as they can, even if they have to trump them up.''
Doug Hattaway, the Gore campaign spokesman, said he did not know whether Gore was aware how few drugs are used for both animals and humans. ''But that's beside the point,'' Hattaway said, since ''it was just one way to illustrate why seniors pay so much for prescription drugs.''
Representative Thomas Allen, Democrat of Maine, who requested the House study comparing animal and human drug costs, said the study, one of several he has commissioned, was just one way to show that the pharmaceutical industry has differential pricing - that it will charge whatever the market will bear.
Allen said it was not inappropriate for Gore to use the animal-human comparison. But he would prefer to have attention focused on another statistic: that uninsured elderly patients pay twice as much as institutional drug buyers for the very same drug.
Last year the American Veterinary Medical Association sent a letter to Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, which raised serious reservations about the Democrats' plans to compare human and animal drug prices.
Gore, in remarks to an audience in Florida on Aug. 28, said his dog, Shiloh, and his mother-in-law, Margaret Ann Aitcheson, take the same arthritis drug, which is called Lodine for humans and EtoGesic for dogs. Gore said his dog's monthly bill is $37.80, while Aitcheson's cost is $108.
''It's pretty bad when you have got to pretend to be a dog or a cat to get a price break,'' Gore said.
The Globe reported on Monday that Gore took those cost figures, not from his family's records, but from the House study, even though the costs represent the price the manufacturer would charge the wholesaler. Moreover, the costs reflected identical dosages - highly unlikely as the human dose would be a dangerous overdose for Gore's dog.
Although Gore is a leading proponent of low-cost generic drugs, he was apparently unaware that 85 percent of prescriptions for Lodine are for the generic version, which could make Aitcheson's monthly cost below $40.
All week, Gore's aides have refused to say whether Aitcheson has an insurance policy that pays for the drug. Yesterday, Hattaway said he would not comment on widespread speculation that her Lodine is provided free by the White House medical office.
But yesterday, Jaeger and others said Gore's use of the issue misses the main point. ''The relevant discussion should be restricted to human drugs, and how to get them to consumers in an affordable way, and especially to uninsured senior citizens,'' she said.
Jaeger, who represents generic drug manufacturers before the Food and Drug Administration, said that legislation filed last week by Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, would facilitate the introduction of more lower-cost generics by removing obstacles that brand-name manufacturers use to retain market exclusivity.
According to drug industry data, generic drugs now account for 42 percent of all prescriptions written in the United States, but they generate just 10 percent of prescription drug revenue. Patented brand-name drugs, in contrast, have 58 percent of the market, and 90 percent of the revenues.
Last week, Jaeger looked at the 14 brand-name drugs cited in the House study that cost substantially more for humans than for animals. Ten of the 14 can be prescribed in cheaper generic form.
Then at the Globe's request, Jaeger examined the 100 top-selling drugs worldwide. She found that just five are also prescribed for animals; and just three of the five are given to both animals and humans in the same dosage form and for the same illness. The three are Prilosec, used to treat ulcers; Vasotec, which is used for hypertension; and Diprivan, an anesthetic agent.
Allen, whose study was used by the Gore campaign - without consulting the Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee, congressional sources say - said that he would not argue that the human and animal drug issue best illustrates the problem.
The study, Allen, said, ''is just another way of getting to the main point - that seniors in the United States without insurance coverage pay the highest drug prices in the world.''
