A Canadian doctor was recently busted for countersigning prescriptions for American patients he had never met, to allow them to buy up our supply of drugs over the Internet. He has reportedly earned about $250,000 in the six months he was in business for doing this.
Since this is Canada where nobody is punished no matter what he does, the likely punishment for this will be a "reprimand" and he gets to keep the money.
The serious problem being caused in Canada by the Americans buying up all the 'cheap' drugs is that we in Canada can't get the drugs from our own doctors. That, and not the problems this is causing in the USA, is what has started the government crackdown on the pipeline to the States.
We have a prescription drug benefit going into force next year for the Geritol Set and they're still whining about "sticker shock." Cripes!
Why do drug companies sell drugs in Canada? Because they get ten years of patent protection and a captive market.
Oh evil Canada. Oh the poor Merks and Bayers they can't use dollar bills for toilet paper because of the evil socialist Canadian medical system.
Get used to it America your being ripped off by drug companies half of which are based in Europe.
Could you help me with this claim? Who says they "must sell to countries with socialized med"... and the article further connotes that this sale is at a below market price.
I don't think they "have to" sell to socialized countries... and I'm dang sure they don't have to sell to anyone below market.
I think that some drug companies choose to sell a few bits of drugs below market for PR - but nothing beyond a strong marketing budget.
If Canucks (or anyone else) have unlimited access to cheap drugs, it's because their taxes subsidize prices... making it so that our access to the drugs amounts to Canadian gov't subsidies of US individual drug purchases.
That being said, your point that we pay high prices so that others can have low prices, is not far off IMO. Just ask the UN.
Sounds like a bargain in some respects. And once the patent expires, the cost will become much more manageable.
1 Pfizer 4450 2 GlaxoSmithKline 3555 3 AstraZeneca 2655 4 Aventis 2579 5 Merck & Co. 2456 5 Johnson & Johnson 2456 7 Bristol-Myers Squibb 2140 8 Novartis 2130 9 Eli Lilly 2125 10 Pharmacia Corporation 2085
Of these, GlaxoSmithKline, Aventis, and Novartis are headquartered in Europe. Since 2001, Pfizer and Pharmacia have merged. Also Aventis and Sanofi have merged.
Of course, all these are huge multi-national corporations, and the European companies have large US operations and R&D labs. The US companies also have large operations and R&D labs in Europe. The industry has consolidated rapidly over the past few years, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic acquiring each other.
Hey, look. Some drugs are just too expensive to pay the US price on. If the choice is between buying a foreign drug import at reduced price or not buying the drug at all, I don't see the problem with importation.
Supposedly, the problem comes with substitution - when people buy the foreign versions of drugs they'd buy anyway.
I don't see this as a major problem. The market is just going through an arbitrage phase. There are plenty of foreign and university-based development programs. Buying cheaper drugs from Canada or anywhere else will hardly stop drug development in America or anywhere else. That's something a profiteer would say when he realizes his huge margins are coming under threat.
The government has already shot its credibility on this issue by warning that drugs from Canada might somehow be 'dangerous.' That's pretty funny, I remember living in the Yukon for a bit and taking some Canadian meds, and I'm still alive!
ping
Interesting post and FReeper discussion. Thanks.
The fallacy of that argument is that no, they don't have to sell the pills to Canada or any other country. Nobody is forcing them to. The long and short of it is if they were losing money selling pharmaceuticals to countries with socialized medicine then they wouldn't do it. The profit they make selling there just isn't as large as the profit they make selling here.
Quote: My case has a silver lining. I have prescription insurance.
Not only are the drug companies selling these drugs to other nations at a lower wholesale price than they are selling in the US, but they are also "giving" drugs to underdeveloped countries and calling it a charitable donation. The reality is that the drug companies sell the drugs cheaply to other countries, give some drugs away as "charity" to underdeveloped countries and then they set the price for the drugs sold in the US such that they make a profit. American are paying to make up for what the companies lose doing business elsewhere.
I have no problem with any business making a fair profit but to do so in this manner forces the people of the US to pay for the rest of the worlds prescription drugs. And the rest of the world treats the US like $hit.