Free Republic

NEW YORK - In one-on-one interviews with 700 Americans, roughly 23 percent reported loaning their prescription medications to someone else, and 27 percent reported borrowing prescription medications. The medications most frequently shared (loaned or borrowed) were allergy drugs like Allegra (25 percent), followed by pain medications like Darvoset and OxyContin (22 percent); and antibiotics like amoxicillin (21 percent). Seven percent of those interviewed said they shared mood-altering drugs like Paxil, Zoloft, Ritalin and Valium. A little more than 6 percent said they shared the prescription anti-acne drug Accutane and about 5 percent shared birth control pills.

Ottawa — A coalition of pharmacists, doctors and patients is warning that Canada could face a disastrous shortage of drugs if the United States allows unlimited imports of drugs from Canada. The coalition says legislation to be introduced in the U.S. Congress next month would overwhelm Canada's prescription-drug supply and price-control system. Medicines are cheaper in Canada because prices are regulated by the Patent Medicines Prices Review Board. This has led to a thriving cross-border trade mainly conducted on the Internet. The coalition says a survey it commissioned found that 55 per cent of Canadians are concerned about U.S. plans...

Web pharmacies fear net tightening By STEVEN CHASE Globe and Mail Update E-mail this Article Print this Article Advertisement OTTAWA — Canada's Internet pharmacies warn that they face devastation if Ottawa forces doctors to stop approving mail-order prescriptions for U.S. patients without examining them personally.''It could be very detrimental, if not deadly, for our industry,'' said David MacKay, executive director of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, whose members do the bulk of cross-border business in this market. He estimated that 95 per cent of the Canadian industry's business is mail-order sales to U.S.-based customers. "Job losses would be 5,000-plus, not...

Allowing direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs in Canada would be a bonanza for the media, generating an estimated $360-million a year in new ads. But the demand it created would also spur as much as $1.2-billion a year in new drug sales, and the beleaguered medicare system would have to bear most of that cost, according to an editorial in Tuesday's edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In a strongly worded piece, editor John Hoey says prescription drugs should not be advertised in the same manner as other consumer products because that could lead to dangerous excesses, as has...

Allowing direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs in Canada would be a bonanza for the media, generating an estimated $360-million a year in new ads. But the demand it created would also spur as much as $1.2-billion a year in new drug sales, and the beleaguered medicare system would have to bear most of that cost, according to an editorial in Tuesday's edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In a strongly worded piece, editor John Hoey says prescription drugs should not be advertised in the same manner as other consumer products because that could lead to dangerous excesses, as has...

WASHINGTON - Medicare prescription drug legislation eased through the Senate and squeaked through the House early Friday, setting up challenging negotiations on a final compromise that President Bush (news - web sites) hopes to sign later this summer. Bush praised lawmakers for the progress. "I urge the Congress to reconcile their differences and to get a bill to my desk as quickly as possible," he said in Rose Garden remarks. The legislation, which creates both a drug benefit and a large new role for private health plans in Medicare, won an overwhelming endorsement in the Senate, where Republicans and Democrats...