Posted on 10/17/2004 2:38:36 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Yep. The Canadian gov't negotiates the price and has the companies over a barrel. They don't mind, the Canadian market is tiny and they'll recoup the loss in the US market. In fact, if it happens, Canadian prices will shoot up and the aggregate price will sneak down a bit, from the US perspective.
there is some canadian guy on FR who insists that canada pays the drug companies the same price as they get in the US - but then subsidizes the cost of them through their socialized medical system, so the end consumer sees a lower cost at retail. he says that what the re-importation really does - is take money from the canadian taxpayer subsidy.
not sure what to make of his explanation, we were with him on another thread about this.
If pill buyers flock en masse to Canadian drugs, you can be damn sure those drugs will not be American made. They'll be lookalikes from Thailand, Mexico, or Nairobi.
Not exactly. See my example above.
The issue is that the cost of production does not equal the cost of the drug, so it makes sense for the drug company (and for U.S. consumers, as well) to sell the drug for anything above the marginal cost of production.
Sure, they'd be all for it, until they started dying. Of course, then their families can start to sue.
It's only a matter of time before someone dies of bad re-imported drugs and then wants to sue the state for allowing it to be legal. In that case, I think they should just send Gov. Blago(IL) to jail. If he's going to publicly break the law, then that's where he belongs.
Precisely.
It's funny how, as simple as the law of supply and demand is, it always takes the Left by surprise.
I'm not familiar with benedryl but some OTC drugs are different in Canada than the US. Not all of the drugs are approved in Canada that are approved in the US so the formulas will differ between the two countries.
My relatives from California always stock up on pain killers with codeine when they visit Canada because it is available over the counter here.
Apparently in California you need to have a prescription and it is much more expensive.
I've always questioned the practicality of reimportation. Canada has only a small fraction of the population of the U.S. How could their supply be sufficient to provide both themselves and the U.S. with prescription drugs?
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