Posted on 12/08/2013 10:32:42 AM PST by Veto!
The two drugs have been declared equivalently miraculous. Tested side by side in six major trials, both prevent blindness in a common old-age affliction. Biologically, they are cousins. They’re even made by the same company...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
How about some free market healthcare to cure our nation’s ills?
Avastin is not indicated for macular degeneration, but Lucentis does have that indication. The physicians who are treating macular degeneration with Avastin are prescribing off-label. There is no safety, efficacy or dosing data to support Avastin for macular degeneration. For Genentech to perform all the studies and trials in order to get a macular degeneration indication would cost Genentech about $1,000,000,000. Of course the FDA is asking for Genentech to do the work in order to change the labeling - it’s always easier to spend someone else billion dollars.
With doctors treating symptoms instead of figuring out causes, the odds of getting the wrong medication are incredible. Add to that the inter-reactions among drugs for people taking more than one. Then there are the diseases you're not aware of because the symptoms have been hidden or they're thought to be side effects of a drug.
I've tried to detox, starting just over four years ago. That includes no medications, no chemicals for household maintenance and pure foods. It does seem that I can self-heal better and that it's much easier to stay in shape.
Listed here at EUR 1.40!!!:
Cheap ASS (LOL)
Tried google for "EU aspirin restriction" but don't see any such. So again, got a source?
This is the description of Bayer Aspirin in the main Norwegian registry. You’ll note that the biggest, indeed the only, package is 20 tablets.
http://www.felleskatalogen.no/medisin/aspirin-bayer-ab-546502
There are bigger boxes, but those are microdoses intended as bloodthinner.
The reason they jumped all over the aspirin (they claim) is that there’s a danger of bleeding. The relevant legal stuff can be hard to find and is generally hidden in discussions by the “authorities”, who always sought to keep knowledge of medications away from the plebs. “Felleskatalogen”, for example, was a black market item until seventies. No one but doctors and health leaders were allowed a copy.
What he says is true. The USPS has all the rules for where he is and they are strict. He can get regular strength children’s aspirin 24 a day where he lives, but it costs a small fortune. He sends money and I order online from Walmart. Then I fill a small USPS box with generic aspirin and other articles especially for diabetics like cake mixes, candy, cookies, powdered drink mixes, etc, that he does not have access to, the post office picks it up, but EVERYTHING that is in the box must be printed on the PO label.
Everything he gets costs less than the postage to send it and yet it still saves him hundreds of dollars. Plus the cake mixes and dietetic extras that he never knew existed and does not have local access to are godsends for him.
People in the US do not realize some of the ersatz and arbitrary restrictions placed on people outside this country, or the lack of availability of so many things we take for granted and/or the prohibitive costs of normal everyday inexpensive pantry items here.
“generic aspirin - is about $2 for a pack of 30 500mg tablets”
I can get 400 generic excedrin from Walmart for $2.82. Do the math.
Amazing about the cost of aspirin….wow. When I was in Italy, it was almost impossible to buy vitamins and other nutritional supplements, which I believe keep me very healthy. I wonderer whether that was the work of BigPharma too.
Then I looked on the UN web site, looked up the new nutrition “rules,” that dictate that we should not eat better than hut dwellers, and down in the gears of Codex Alimentarius found a statement thanking BAYER for providing funds.
THANK YOU Sparticus. I really appreciate your info and will follow up.
I went to the police drug fellows, that I had helped nab a meth dealer earlier. Thinking that I at least knew them, I’d be taken seriously. Wrote up a full report, handed it to them, they basically yawned.
And I was really out of energy at that point, having contended with the meth selling neighbor for a year. Was a few months ago, the energy has returned. :)
In my entire life, I never thought I’d have any contact with such things, but here I am doing policewoman work in my allegedly golden years. Sux.
What is the common disease that causes blindness that they are talking about?
Perhaps, but in my particular case of macular degeneration, there is a difference between the two drugs. My doctor has used both on me and we found that with Avastin I was requiring an injection about every 3-4 weeks; with Lucentis, it's about every 4 months with the possibility that it might even stretch to 5 months or more. And, instead of having appointments every 3-4 weeks, he can now schedule me for 5-6 weeks.
That explains a lot. I did not realize the physicians are reimbursed that way. For "given" drugs and/or prescriptions they write?
I went thru a medical nightmare last year, pains in heart, which I was pretty sure were caused by a series of sad events, one on top of the other. Called doc, they said come in. My regular doc sent me to big medical center with a highly reputable heart center. They got me right in, even tho I told them it was probably emotional pain.
Biggest heart doc in the area saw me, I told him it was probably emotional pain. And that I had been a little late, having RUN UP TWO FIGHTS OF STAIRS to his office therefore was out of breath.
He asked me a few questions, gave me a prescription (I told him whatever it was had to be very mild and the lowest dose possible because back in Seattle, where I used to live, "High Responder" is printed in red on all my charts. ( My doc there saw for himself the way I overreact to drugs).
And they scheduled me into nuclear stress test four days later.
The meds were WAY TOO STRONG, was unconscious for 16 hours after taking one pill. Was told to take 4xday. He had not listened to me. Naturally, I* took no more if that poison.
The stress test was horrible, I felt really roughed up, and AFTERWARDS they told me not to get near growing children for a few days because I was RADIOACTIVE and might damage their growth cycle.. Had I known that, I would have refused the procedure. Cat took one look at me and ran under the bed when I got home, and didn't come out for two days. Guess he did not like that blue glow, and neither did I.
When the results were in, my regular doc greeted me with a big smile: My results looked like the heart of someone 25 years younger. ZERO problem.
A week later, TIME magazine did an entire issue on the scandalous way hospitals overcharge. One of the cases they described in detail was exactly like mine, woman who was pretty sure her heart pains were not serious just checking it out. . Hospitals charge upwards of $20,000 to private insurance and even to uninsured people; Medicare pays them something like $1200. And the woman they wrote about had absolutely nothing wrong with her. Maybe indigestion. Massive indigestion now that she was stuck with a $22k bill.
Followup with the heart surgeon was just as ridiculous. He mentioned Plavix with a smile about ten times. I said no, I NEVER take anything advertised on TV. We batted that around for a few minutes and then he said, Well you can take aspirin then. And then he said, "You have to believe in drugs or they don't work."
Does that say everything you need to know about BigMed/Pharma?
There's a standard list of symptoms that will get you that kind of treatment. I had five of ten. But at the end of the day, I realized that there should have been many more questions; I'd have 5 of 50, which would have convinced any doctor worth his salt that I was at zero risk for a heart attack.
Gee whiz, I wonder who wrote those questions? Could it possibly have come from the Medical/BigPharma cartel?
We can only imagine how much worse it will get with obummercare.
Gee, sorry for ranting on….LOL…that was a year ago and I'm still furious, and every taxpayer should be too.
If the article doesn’t say, I don’t know. Sorry, at the end of the day I don’t remember morning details. Uh oh.
dorothy, I’m happy to hear that the drug is making a big difference for you. Hope and pray that every 6 months is enough,
I have no problem with doctors prescribing expensive NECESSARY drugs, though of course, one would hope that the price would eventually go down.
I understand, I am the same way.
As promised, I stopped by a pharmacy today (right across from where I was doing some shopping anyway) and asked whether there was some EU rule that limits aspirin purchases. Uh, no. Buy all you want.
Still don't see any proof for your initial claim (WHICH IS WHAT I RESPONDED TO) that the EU only allows the purchase of a few aspirin tablets per day. Also, I think I've shown that aspirin is dirt cheap here (OK, still cheaper in the US), by any reasonable daily consumption measure - even if you go through a whole pack of 30 500mg tabs/day (highly unlikely I think). If you can't afford a buck for aspirin per day, you might have a bigger problem.
So let's drop the antagonistic crap about some outlandish claims - best of luck to you and your aspirin supply.
I wasn’t trying to be antagonistic and Norway isn’t technically part of the EU. You are right in that this is a particularly Norwegian problem and Hardraade DOES have a severe injury which causes him constant pain, so he uses more painkiller than what most people would use for an infrequent headache or such. He slipped on ice and literally shattered his shoulder which was replaced by a metal implant. He also has an open wound on his foot which has refused to heal for months now that also causes him severe pain. The last time almost cost him his leg. For him to purchase the regulated 340 mg, 24 per day at $10-$12 a pop is prohibitive. If he wants more than 24 at one time, he needs a prescription. Prescriptions are limited to 60 and costs around $35. To pay EU prices for a three month supply plus shipping might be a little more reasonable, but when I get his supplies, I include other things besides just aspirin so he gets things he other wise could not. Like canned soups and things. That was all I was trying to say. Norway has a problem and he is a very sick guy living on a fixed income.
Thank you for the info though. I know very little about the EU and what is available and what is not. I just know about where he lives because I had to make sure that it was legal for me to do this.
OK, thanks for the explanation.
Gotta say, that’s really nice of you to help him out like that. How about this: If he runs short on aspirin again I’ll send him a few boxes myself. No sweat.
I happened upon this thread by accident, yet it is about an affliction I have: Macular degeneration. It would be nice to post at least in parenthesis the name of the ailment the articles addresses. I just happened to see Mesta addressing another freeper, and since I try to read all her stuff I stopped to read the thread. BTW, my macular degeneration appears to be under control just taking a mega supplement daily. At my age, I probably will not live long enough to go completely blind, so I guess ‘it’s all good’.
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