The Republicans continued a sharp assault today on Vice President Al Gore over the veracity of a statement he made last month saying his mother-in-law paid a much higher price for a prescribed arthritis medication than he had to pay for the same drug when it was prescribed for his dog.
In response the Gore campaign released information that on close examination seems to suggest that there was little disparity in the price for similar dosages of the drugs.
Mr. Cheney was referring to news accounts that cast doubt on an anecdote Mr. Gore used last month when he told a group of elderly people in Florida that the arthritis medicine his mother-in-law took cost three times as much as the animal version of the same medicine taken by his dog, Shiloh.
The Boston Globe reported on Monday that Mr. Gore had made the assertion based on figures from a Congressional report, not on his family's actual drug bills.
Today, after enduring barbs on the issue from the Bush campaign for a day and a half, the Gore campaign said the report that Mr. Gore had cited put the wholesale price of Lodine, the arthritis drug for humans, at $1.20 per capsule and Etogesic, the one for dogs, at 42 cents. The Lodine for Mr. Gore's mother-in-law, Margaret Ann Aitcheson, cost $2.13 per capsule , while Shiloh's Etogesic cost 92 cents per capsule, the campaign said.
But the campaign did not specify the size of the doses for humans as compared to that for dogs.
A check of prices for the two drugs at Web sites showed that the cost per milligram of Lodine was lower in some cases than the price per milligram of Etogesic, suggesting that the disparity was generated by the difference in dosages.
A check of Web sites showed Lodine ranged in cost from 0.22 cents a milligram to 0.48 cents per milligram. At a similar Web site for veterinary supplies, Etogesic ranged from 0.25 cents a milligram to 0.51 cents per milligram.
Later Mr. Gore talked about the matter and said the issue was not his mother-in-law.
''The issue is what seniors around the country are paying, and the wholesale price is between two and three times what is charged for pets,'' he said.
''That's the issue,'' he added. ''What's paid varies depending upon what drug store you go to, and it was roughly the same.
But Mr. Cheney, who attacked Mr. Gore on a variety of fronts today, contended that the issue was one of credibility.