Medications from Canada, India etc?

My wife has had to take Nexium for quite sometime, and before it went generic we had to order it thru a Canadian pharmacy. Otherwise, she was thrown into "The Gap" and we had to pay 3 mos. of meds out of pocket.

If you can save money going thru a good Canadian pharmacy, go for it. The packages come directly from India, and we had no problems of any kind.
 
A few years back I had to take the men's drug which I will refer to as "Vitamin V". In the US it was $10/pill. Since I had to take it every day it got very expensive.

I ended up buying it from an Indian company for $1/pill. Ethically it bothered me some but not enough to overcome the motivation from the $savings.

The Indian product had much more pill-to-pill variation in dosage than the US product. I would guess that if the US product varied +/- 3%, the Indian product varied +/- 20%. In my case this variation did not matter, but perhaps for other situations it would.
 
The only thing I would caution is that someone on the internet saying they are a Canadian pharmacy might not be one...

I thought I was buying a drug from a Canadian pharmacy and it was not... they have been calling me from India for many years even though I have asked them to stop calling me... and I do not answer the phone 95% of the time if I do not know who is calling....


Now, if you walk in a store there.... that is different....
 
When I was looking into this earlier, this site seemed to have some credibility.
 
Meadbh said:
Quality control problem story.....

Canadians kept in the dark about prescription medication - Health - CBC News
Click to expand...

If you read the whole article, you'll see the following:

Through a Freedom of Information request, Go Public obtained dozens of FDA inspection reports that outline numerous and serious infractions at foreign manufacturing labs, mostly in India, used by Canadian and U.S. drug companies.
Click to expand...
Note my bolded section. So we in the US look to be in the same boat, quality control-wise.
 
aja8888 said:
Ummmmmmmmmm.....no, because they too will find out the U.S. drugs are mostly made in foreign countries just like the Canadian-supplied ones are. :facepalm:
Click to expand...

Exactly, so why would we pay more for them?
 
Just one old guy's opinion: Of all the things I spend my money on, the one I think of as most important is my health. While it is possible to purchase low-cost equivalents (or even the same drug) from another country, I would be very leery of doing so. Playing "craps" in Vegas with money is fun (or not). Playing craps with your health - not so much IMHO. I'm sure for every horror story (pills made from floor sweepings, for instance) there are lots of folks who save a ton of money by buying foreign-sold drugs. I just will not be one of them as long as my stash holds out.

Regarding the whole "drugs cost too much in the USA" argument, I say the same thing to folks who think US Pharma companies have a "license to steal" as I do to all the folks who (just a few years ago) said "Big Oil" had a license to steal. How much of their stock do you own? If you don't own their stock, you don't really believe they have that special license after all. Again, just one old guy's opinion so take it with a grain of salt (or an aspirin) and don't call me in the morning. End of rant - returning you to our regularly scheduled programming because YMMV.
 
WADR, Canadian drugs are pretty much the same as those in the USA. However, IIRC, you can't buy them here unless prescribed by a Canadian doctor. Ask meadbh, she is/was one. So, if your "Canadian Online Pharmacy" will sell you whatever you want, odds are it ain't Canadian.
 
Got an unwelcome surprise yesterday when DW asked her doc for a written prescription so we can shop it around for the best price. The office person said that the doc doesn't write paper prescriptions anymore due to state law (MI). I Googled it, but could not make total sense of what I found, which dealt with drugs with a high rate of abuse like painkillers. The drug that DW takes is not in that classification.

Anyone else run into this roadblock?
 
travelover said:
Got an unwelcome surprise yesterday when DW asked her doc for a written prescription so we can shop it around for the best price. The office person said that the doc doesn't write paper prescriptions anymore due to state law (MI). I Googled it, but could not make total sense of what I found, which dealt with drugs with a high rate of abuse like painkillers. The drug that DW takes is not in that classification.

Anyone else run into this roadblock?
Click to expand...
Some states do require the prescriptions be formatted as legible. The same is true in WA state, but the doctor will issue the script through their system to a printer. But, what your provider might want to do is fax the script directly to a pharmacy you choose.

If you are shopping for the best price, try Goodrx.com. This website has an agreement with almost all the pharmacies in your area and will show you the prices for the drug the doctor would order for you. So you need to know what drug, in what dosage, and how many doses the doctor would authorize to be dispensed.

GoodRx will show you the pharmacy, the price, and offer a coupon to get the price shown. Once you identify the pharmacy, let the doctor know which pharmacy you want to fill the prescription. They can then fax directly.

I use the service for some human medications I give to my dog (it turns out sometimes the veterinary versions of the same thing are more expensive).

- Rita
 
Gotadimple said:
Some states do require the prescriptions be formatted as legible. The same is true in WA state, but the doctor will issue the script through their system to a printer. But, what your provider might want to do is fax the script directly to a pharmacy you choose.

If you are shopping for the best price, try Goodrx.com. This website has an agreement with almost all the pharmacies in your area and will show you the prices for the drug the doctor would order for you. So you need to know what drug, in what dosage, and how many doses the doctor would authorize to be dispensed.

GoodRx will show you the pharmacy, the price, and offer a coupon to get the price shown. Once you identify the pharmacy, let the doctor know which pharmacy you want to fill the prescription. They can then fax directly.

I use the service for some human medications I give to my dog (it turns out sometimes the veterinary versions of the same thing are more expensive).

- Rita
Click to expand...
Thanks. Actually want to send the prescription to a Canadian pharmacy, so need to have a printed copy. Not sure if doc would fax to a Canadian pharmacy.
 
travelover said:
Got an unwelcome surprise yesterday when DW asked her doc for a written prescription so we can shop it around for the best price. The office person said that the doc doesn't write paper prescriptions anymore due to state law (MI). I Googled it, but could not make total sense of what I found, which dealt with drugs with a high rate of abuse like painkillers. The drug that DW takes is not in that classification.

Anyone else run into this roadblock?
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to shop for my Rx but my own Dr hasn't written a Rx on paper for a few years...by the time I leave his office, I already have a text saying that the Rx has been sent to my pharmacy electronically.

He does it all "e-Rx" from his phone.
 
marko said:
I'm not trying to shop for my Rx but my own Dr hasn't written a Rx on paper for a few years...by the time I leave his office, I already have a text saying that the Rx has been sent to my pharmacy electronically.

He does it all "e-Rx" from his phone.
Click to expand...
Yes, I've seen a similar trend, though a few years ago I asked for and received a written prescription because I knew that I could get the antibiotics for free at an alternate pharmacy.

Right now I'm trying to filter through the "it is a state law" claim roadblock without ticking off the doc.
 
Also have doc do e RX.... but he will print out and sign it if asked...


I was just in to visit a different doc today and started to read a letter about controlled drugs... I stopped at the top, but what I think it was saying is that they have to be electronic.... then there was a list of other things that I did not read.... probably wants to make sure it is not copied and taken to many places...
 
I stopped in at my local Target pharmacy and chatted with the person that takes the prescriptions (probably a pharm tech). I explained that I wanted a written prescription from the doc so I could shop it for the lowest price and asked it it was indeed a law that prescriptions had to be sent electronically.

She said that was absolutely not true, as they regularly get written prescriptions to fill, but it was probably the doc's office policy.
 
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