Posted on 12/26/2009 9:47:52 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER
I've been ordering my most expensive prescriptions from Canada, I pay cash, at a very considerable savings. The cost difference is great enough to affect my overall standard of living, the choice between just getting by or having a basic life.
I was expecting trouble with the passage of Obamacare, he promised big pharma that imports would be ended, but I didn't expect it so soon. If customs refuses an order I'll still be stuck paying for it.
I don't know how the medicare copay will compare to what I've been paying, I guess I'm about to find out.
The prescription involved here is made by CIPLA, in India, and is used world wide with safety and good results.
This is the label that big brother put on my order that came yesterday.
I guess you won’t be getting anymore of that from Canada. Road trip to Mexico in your near future?
Doing what they always do, which is the opposite of what they say?
I resent the dishonesty as much as anything, many of the approved drugs come from the same production lines. The difference is the label and the price.
The government is nothing but a gigantic protection racket.
Eh, find a Canadian Freeper who can quitely ship them to you without the Pharmacy label attached to the package.
This is the height of absurdity, so Pharam supposedly makes two different makes of pharmaceuticals?
One for the US, a different, less quality controlled version for the rest of the world?
B$, the assembly line is the same, this is merely one more protection racket that fills politicos pockets while punishing those who cannot afford their meds in the US.
the FDA, huh?....that bastion of “competence”.....just another BUREAUCRACY! It’ll be interesting to see what happens in a few years to the bio-ID hormones I REQUIRE to live.....I wish yop luck!
“Registered Global Mail”
Indeed.
Hmmm....I buy an OTC item from a Canadian Pharmacy because it’s no longer carried in the US. I wonder if I will receive a similar warning? Just reordered - will know in a week or two.
Your doctor prescribed it, but it’s not FDA approved? ...just trying to figure out the specific reasons for the warning.
Ahm, this is the regime that's going to jail people for not buying insurance = afford it or not.
You think they'd hesitate to put him in jail for 'smuggling banned drugs across the border' - and the sendee could be brought up on the same charges on the other side - including falsifying customs forms. (There are groups that get together and hire a bus, go to CAnada themselves on a 'drug run.' CAnada has allowed it. It may still be an avenue. But keep in mind that each person must only purchase/bring back the drugs that are for themselves.
I have no doubt that, as well, if there is not already the provision in those thousands of pages none of them have read, there WILL be a ban on herbal/supplements. They have been trying to grab the billions of dollars from these for decades.They want to put them under prescriptions - forcing you to pay for an office visit and prescription money to pharma.
They're already doing that in Europe.
Myself, I've been familiarizing myself with herbal remedies from different plants and how to grow, forage and harvest them for myself.
This regime is tucked into bed tight with pharma -
We live in perilous times. We fight for our rights NOW or it will be too late.
The reason for the warning is that Obama gave the drug companies protection from competition in exchange for their support of Obamacare. I expect prices to go up for Americans!
500% Goodness. Those Evil Drug Companies.
A) there is no law in Canada that prohibits drug exports to the US.
B) unless the meds are narcotic, the shipment would be seized, which will happen anyway soon enough.
I “know” this because some in my family need medications and Canada is “plan B”.
Would not bother with a Mexican Pharmacy by mail, NZ would be a better choice.
And you are correct, Herbal Supplements will come under the boot sooner or later, there are variations of Vitamin B that are now consider “medicine” because they have been proven to actually have medicinal properties.
Why are drugs cheaper in socialist Canada than in capitalist USA?
Thank you. I was going to try to help you out with a good source, but it appears so far that the pressure is on from the pharmaceutical racket. Yes, Obama and co. obviously intended to soften up the Government’s position against the lives of asthmatics, but their favored constituents are the same ones who controlled the Bush Administration and several before it.
...will keep checking around here, and let you know if I find any more info. The free traitors want to put Americans out of work while offering lots of cheap entertainment junk, but they don’t want Americans to have affordable lumber, prescription drugs, or much of anything that they really need. ...too much money for them from necessities in locked up in monopolies.
We pay all the R&D costs, the rest of the world just pays for the drug. I realize that costs must be met but there is a limit to reasonable markups, and competition is the best way to do it. There will now be no incentive to control prices and I think that they will increase.
This is basically the same label that has been in use for years. I have not received one myself, but others have. Often if a shipment is intercepted and not forwarded a pharmacy will use a different shipping method the second time and it will get through. I would not hesitate to make additional orders; maybe for a small amount the next time in case you do not receive it. I have ordered from Canada, Mexico and Europe in the past. Now many drugs are on the $4 list at Walmart which means I don’t have to order so many from other countries.
It sure didn’t take long to get the stickers printed!
“I resent the dishonesty as much as anything, many of the approved drugs come from the same production lines. The difference is the label and the price.”
IIRC the problem is that US consumers have to shoulder the cost of R&D for these drugs while foreign gov’ts wrangle deals to buy drugs for less. The pharma companies make these deals because they’re better than nothing, less the foreign gov’ts buy foreign-made (third-world) knockoffs, which are out there.
These drugs cannot be re-imported into the US because there’s no way to know if they’re the same drugs that were exported or something unsafe.
I make no excuses for anyone over this, just passing on what I understand to be the case. Unless the US is willing to go to war over patent rights, we’re screwed.
My mother is on some meds which if bought full price are outrageous. On her prescription drug plan they’re only half-outrageous.
P.S. I love your photography.
PLMerite - Nikon D80
When someone in the U.S. gets “less costly” RX drugs from Canada they are just sticking it to Canadian taxpayers/citizens, AND increasing the cost to U.S. citizens for new drugs in the future. Canada is shuffling the cost of developing new drugs off on other countries. We end up paying more here in the U.S. so Canadians can pay less and the Canadians cannot get certain drugs and pay higher taxes for their socialized health care.
From: http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba323
Price controls are the reason some prescription drugs cost less in Canada than in the United States. The Patented Medicines Price Review Board (PMPRB), a government agency that oversees the pharmaceutical industry, negotiates a final price for prescription drugs with pharmaceutical companies rather than relying on the drug manufacturers to cut their own prices. Generally, the board does not allow a new drug to be priced higher than the most expensive existing drug used to treat the same condition. Thus the Canadian system penalizes patients who have difficulty with a more popular medicine but would thrive on the second, third or fourth medicine that is similar but not exactly the same.
Canada also keeps down the price of some prescription drugs by depending on other developed countries to bear a larger share of the research and development costs required to bring drugs into production. These costs average US$600 million per drug, so prices in the global market must reflect the need to attract investment and earn profits for future research and development. However, the cost of actually manufacturing most drugs is small, so manufacturers have discretion in pricing, which is why Canada can force them to set drug prices lower. If patients in every country paid a less-than-fair price for drugs, no money for research and development of new drugs would be available.”
And BTW, the R&D costs are outrageous. With no hope of establishing a monopoly, those costs would not be nearly as high, either.
“Most of the asthma drugs are produced elsewhere—R&D and all.”
Okay, so the US respects international patent rights.
It costs US Pharma companies billions of dollars to get new drugs online. IIRC patents last about 18 years before they can legally go generic.
What’s the solution?
One of the really nice things about living in Eastern Europe is that I walk in the pharmacy, I tell them what I want and they sell it to me. In many cases at 10% of what the same thing would cost in the U.S., and often made by the same manufacturer. No prescription needed.
For about $100 a year I have insurance that allows me unlimited doctor visits to my home, medicine for the first 24 hours and transport to the hospital if needed. Only needed it twice in 3 years but when I called, a doctor showed up at my door in less than an hour and even had a hi tech german ekg machine in her bag. Its a private company with no government support.
“With no hope of establishing a monopoly, those costs would not be nearly as high, either.”
If I recall correctly, only 1 or 2 in 10 drug research lines actually make it to FDA approval and marketing. All 10 however have to be paid for. Those people in the white coats don’t work for free. So one is not only paying for the 1 or 2 drugs they’re actually using, but the other 8 or 9 who didn’t pan out.
I sympathize with anyone who needs expensive drugs to get by. But what are the alternatives ?
“Its a private company with no government support.”
Oh, I bet someone is subsidizing it somehow, somewhere.
Either that or there’s some fine print that’s going to bite you in the butt when you least expect it.
My point is that US pharmaceutical companies are stopping generics from being imported by blocking the necessary testing and approvals, even after 18 years. Our most urgent other national problems (defense, economy ruined by importers, intrusive social programs, and so on) are due to the same favored corporate constituents, who control both political parties.
They are subsidized by the government
“My point is that US pharmaceutical companies are stopping generics from being imported by blocking the necessary testing and approvals, even after 18 years.”
I can’t speak to that, maybe after 18 years they still haven’t paid for themselves.
It’s a tough choice. If you want US R&D to stop (no more new wonder drugs) and possibly be at the mercy of third-world knockoffs then there are people who would go alone with that just to screw “Big Pharma.”
Social Security set the retirement age at 65 in 1936 because most people didn’t live that long. Now people live longer - my mother is 91 - and a lot of that is due to modern medicine.
There’s bound to be a better way to do it within a free-market framework, but getting everyone to pay American prices for their drugs when they’re getting sweetheart deals now will be tough.
I’m open to suggestions, not that I have the power to do anything with them.
Trial Lawyers and the cost of insurance against them...
“It was good enough for other technologists who did critical work during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.”
Tech isn’t medicine. The FDA imposes strict requirements on drug companies to make sure that the drugs which make it to market don’t kill large numbers of people. None of that is cheap and if you try to do it cheap people will suffer.
That’s the end of that.
Now, We are all Communists.
No, things are just different here. I once thought about doing a medically related humanitarian project here and inquired about the cost of a full time doctor. I was told that if I wanted one who would really be dedicated and do a good job that I would have to pay at least $500 a month. That would probably be $800 now since the dollar in in the toilet.
The first year I had the insurance it was $50 a year so it has about doubled in 3 years..but I think I can handle it.
When I visited Tijuana with some friends, we found a drug store where we could get anything and ask the guy behind the counter how he could do that and he said a doctor came in at the end of the day and wrote prescriptions for all their sales....but we went to 3 stores before the stu (retired stewardess) found one that she trusted...At the time, years ago a bottle of 10 mg Valium bottle of 90 cost 45 dollars. I'm not saying anyone bought those..:O)..My girlfriends daughters dog was on anti-biotics and steroids and they were lots cheaper in Tijuana s/. But we were told any doctor in the city would take you on as a patient and write your scrips...
If they restrict these, I am sure overseas pharmacies will start marking them for animals and continue the shipments.
No one will stop as long as it is cheaper and people have a motive for profit. This is capitalism at work.
The american consumer is paying for the Canadian drugs...the country tells the pharma what they will charge them...dealing in such large amounts Pharma says OK and charges us lots more....
Pharma also puts new drugs on the market that are no better than the older ones...R & D is vastly overrated in costs. Americans are getting screwed because they can screw us...Wal Mart has done more for people that need meds. than any government program...they also forced other company’s to lower their prices.....go Wal Mart...and its anti-union, another plus....
"hope" N "change" dontcha know!!!!
“The problem there, sometimes, is that the FDA does not get to review some of those drugs.”
I assume that the projects are abandoned when it’s obvious they don’t work or won’t pass FDA muster.
Even with strict standards, some drugs still prove too dangerous and have to be quashed. I see lawyer fishing ads all the time looking for people who have been harmed by x- or y-drug.
The brand name was the same as doctors give and just as sterile. Ranchers would not accept inferior drugs for their animals...cattle raised for food is just as important for human consumption when it comes to any possible illness....
I use to order all my meds from a vet catalog when I was raising goats...the difference in cost was astounding. The dosage was based on weight on animal..So is it for humans.
Also needles were dirt cheap...sterile and could be purchased by lumen size..100 Sterile needles with cartridge would be under 15 dollars...
The same injection for your dog from the vet was 4X the cost..
“Pharma also puts new drugs on the market that are no better than the older ones...R & D is vastly overrated in costs.”
Some drugs don’t work on some people (sometimes not on lots of people) so it’s not a question of “better,” just another option.
And if Wal-Mart can negotiate better prices (or is willing to use their pharmacy as a loss-leader, which I suspect is the case), good for them.
Some things to keep in mind:
“It ain’t never free,”
“Sometimes it ain’t even cheap,” and,
“You get what you pay for.”
I am sorry, I wasn’t trying to infer that they were in any way inferior.
I know some animals are much more sensitive then humans, so in some cases the drugs are even more precise and of better quality than the human stuff.
No one in their right mind would give inferior drugs to animals that are in some cases million dollar investments by the rancher.
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