Cost per dose is useful only after normalizing the package
Divide the complete cost by the number of usable doses, not simply the number printed on the bottle. Include consultation, required membership, medication, shipping, and any first-order discount. For a daily medication, a “dose” means a day of treatment. For an as-needed plan, it means one prescribed use.
Formula
Example
A $39 twenty-pill offer with no separate shipping or membership has a nominal package cost of $1.95 per tablet. That does not establish that each tablet is the same drug or strength as a competing offer. A $24 six-dose plan has a nominal package cost of $4.00 per dose before any additional fees. The clinical plan still controls whether the comparison is meaningful.
Compounded formulas resist simple per-dose ranking
A troche containing tadalafil, PT-141, and oxytocin is not interchangeable with one generic tadalafil tablet. You can calculate dollars per troche, but that number should not appear in a table implying equivalent treatment.
Daily treatment should use monthly and annualized numbers
For daily tadalafil, show the cost per day and the complete thirty-day cost. Annualized cost can reveal membership and refill consequences, but it should remain an estimate because prices and clinical plans change.
Build the number yourself
The V3 real-cost calculator calculates first order, selected-period total, monthly equivalent, annualized estimate, and cost per dose without transmitting the values.