Posted on 10/14/2004 10:59:58 PM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
American Seniors Buy Cheaper Medicines In Canada Group Hopes To Send Political Statement
POSTED: 10:44 pm EDT October 14, 2004 UPDATED: 12:48 am EDT October 15, 2004
TORONTO -- A train dubbed the "RX Express" has arrived in Toronto.
COST IN CANADA
It's carrying Americans seeking to stock up on cheaper Canadian prescriptions. They also hope to send a political statement to federal regulators and lawmakers.
The trip -- which originated in Florida -- was organized by the Foundation for Taxpayer Consumer Rights. Founder Jerry Flannagman says the point of the trip is to bring about a change in U.S. policy.
A Pennsylvania woman who spends $556 a month on asthma medications says she hopes to save about 50 percent.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opposes commercial prescription imports, but individuals can buy a three-month supply of medicine if they have a U.S. prescription.
Previous Stories: October 12, 2004: Elderly Board RX Express For Canada October 1, 2004: FDA Raises Questions About Canadian Drug Web Site Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
In an unrelated story, seniors dying a alarming rates from bad medicine bought in Canada. Kerry says it's Bush's fault.
Kerry criticized the president for allowing outsourcing of US Jobs to grow , yet he believes that Americans should outsource their local pharmacy to Canada? Great, at least he is consistent about taking two sides on every issue...
Canada provides cheap, refrigerated, and relatively safe transit by rail and truck which might well explain this.
Not all that stuff ends up where it's intended. Canadians get to consume more of it than they wished.
Even has American drug manufacturers' names on it too!
With all due respect . . . Go pound broken glass up your ass.
I buy my meds from Canada. They are the same drugs, made in the same labs, by the same Drug Companys. The only difference is they are affordable, and do not have those stupid child-resistant caps on the bottles. I pay aprox. $225 a month for meds that would cost over $675 a month here.
What's wrong with this picture?
Oh the "evil" of it all, LOL.
If many US citizens decide to puchase Canadian drugs and the basic economic law of supply and demand holds, what do these idots think will be the result?
For thinking individuals the result will be shortages of drugs in Canada, Canadian national health care in crisis, the Canadian government enacting laws against US citizens buying drugs in Canada, the price of drugs to all in Canada going through the roof, probably as high or higher than those in the US.
I like it, Democratic Party "do-gooders" destroy Canadian Health Care system and convince all in the United States that nationalized health care is stupid!
Go Democrats! The laws of unintended consequences.
However, they are sold under Canadian price controls.
You are "importing" Canadian price controls into the U.S.
One of two things will happen:
(1) U.S. companies will stop selling drugs to Canada because they cannot cover their costs if U.S. consumers pay controlled Canadian prices.
(2) U.S. companies will stop creating new drugs that might save your sorry life should you develop a new ailment.
So enjoy, free lunches don't last long in the real world.
When we have turned our nation into the eastern block, who is going to come and bail us out? After you nit wits undercut the potential of our drug manufacturers to make enough profits to reinvest, who will be the next big inventor of the medications that can help you?
Please name for us one medication that was researched, tested and manufactured in Canada or Mexico over the last fifty years.
You are destroying any hope future U.S. citizens have for continuing to remain on the cutting edge of R & D. And what's more, it's because you're a selfish a.h. "I got mine, F the next generation!"
Well bless mother government, pretty soon the freebies will be rolling in as nanny state dispenses medications to the lemings without a clue. Ah what's the problem, the kids will pay for it.
When I lived in AZ I knew quite a few seniors from Sun City and those environs, who would take the bus, usually every Saturday, I believe, down to Mexico to buy their drugs. They had a doctor on board who would check the prescriptions to ensure that the drugs they were going to get were high quality. (From what they told me, not ALL the cheap drugs to be gotten down there were of good quality, that's why they had some "authority" go with them). Anyway, that's my ancedotal addition to this thread.
But, the President said during the Second Debate that the Prescription Drugs from Canada were not safe. You would have thought he was talking about drugs from Uganda.
The worse thing about the entire prescription drug debate is that Bush is on the wrong side of the argument and the seniors are going to vote against him.
Thankyou, Petruchio. My husband buys his drugs from the Canadiandrugstore.com and pays 1/2 to 2/3 less on his prescriptions!
They're American made drugs, exact same medication that we had to pay a fortune for in this country.
My neighbor is a Senior...they're really angry. Not only are did the tax on their benefits go up, but the drug companys...right up the chain to the pharmacies...upped their drug prices because of the Corporate Welfare bonanza we taxpayers are stuck paying for. Worse, he has to pay $420. per month for one medication that his HMO choice won't pay for. It's doing him virtually no good. I live by a Senior community. I've heard the same tale many times over.
That program is a real problem. It was look good legislation that was merely Corporate Welfare in disguise.
DUde,
You have been here about one month. I have been here over 6 years. Try again . . .
You're right about that... but its even worse than that.
Canada basically blackmails US pharmaceutical companies into selling the drugs to Canada at a loss under their price controls. If the drug company refuses to sell at that price, Canada will refuse to enforce any patent claim on the drug, so then the company will face a flood of generics that merely copy the drug and sell it globally.
The generic copies can afford to do it, of course, because they have none of the R&D and testing costs to recover.
This issue threatens to kill drug development. Pure and simple.
I don't think corporate welfare is the right term.
US drug consumers are paying all of the development overhead for drugs that are sold elsewhere under brutally unfair price controls.
Please name for us one medication that was researched, tested and manufactured in Canada or Mexico over the last fifty years.
VIOXX for the treatment of osteoarthritis
SINGULAIR a once a day pill for athsma. FOSAMAX® (alendronate sodium) for osteoporosis, MAXALT® (rizatriptan benzoate) for migraine, AGGRASTAT® (tirofiban hydrochloride) for unstable angina, CRIXIVAN® (indinavir sulfate) for HIV/AIDS, COZAAR® § (losartan potassium) for hypertension and ZOCOR® (simvastatin) for lowering cholesterol.
All developed in Canada in the past decade.
It took me 5 minutes to look that up. Try a google search under Canadian drug research and development.
Now do you understand why some of the most widely prescribed drugs are cheaper in Canada. They were developed in Canada.
What insults? I did say "With all due respect", it is just with less than a month on FR not a lot of respect is due . . .
Now to the point, If the medications are made in the same Corp., in the same Lab, in the same department, and placed in the same bottles, Then they do fall under the same quality controls. The only physical difference in the packaging is the lack of child-resistant packaging. And frankly all child-resistant packaging does is make it hard for adults to open the stuff.
The medications are the same, period.
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