MINNEAPOLIS, April 24, 2008—Richard Adair, M.D., an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota who is also an expert on physician prescribing habits, was featured in a CNN story about free samples and why they're not exactly free.

In the story, Adair's own physician offered him a sample of the prescription cream Aldara. Adair found out Aldara costs $309.57 for a two-week supply, whereas the fluorouracil, a generic prescription cream Adair had been using with good results for five years costs just $74.84 for the same two-week period.

Adair told his doctor, No thanks.

The lesson of his experience, as another physician in the story said, is that samples may look free, but they're not. They can set patients up for an expensive long term prescription once the sample period ends.

A new study from the University of Chicago shows that when people receive samples, they end up spending more money on drugs. In a the study, those receiving samples spent $166 in the six months before they obtained free medicine, $244 when they received the samples, and $212 in the six months after that. Patients who never received free samples spent an average of $178 for six months in prescriptions.

The CNN story asked why Adair's doctor gave him samples of an expensive new drug when the cheaper alternative had been satisfactory for a period of years.

"He was being nice to me, or he thought he was," Adair told the CNN reporter. "Doctors think they're helping people by giving free samples, but we don't think through the long-term consequences."

 CNN report