Research and reference articles

Canadian drugs beat Medicare, many say

Dissatisfaction with the new Medicare prescription drug program continues to fuel demand for Canadian drugs among American seniors.

In many instances, Canadian drugs remain less expensive than the cost of enrolling in and purchasing drugs through the Medicare program.

Jerry saved more than $200 on her 3-month supply of Prevacid -- used to treat ulcers and gastroesophageal reflux -- and about $20 on her prescription for the thyroid hormone Synthroid, compared with what she would have paid at home.

U.S. drug prices run nearly 300% more than the world average price while other countries using the same drugs pay just 3% to 10% more than that price.

Medicare Part D: Canadian Pharmacies Offer Lower Prices

American pharmacists across the country are outraged with the new changes associated with the addition of Medicare's new Part D and so are Americans that need prescription drugs.

Some of the heaviest hit by the new changes of course are senior citizens that rely on prescription drugs, senior citizens that live on already limited incomes and simply do not have the money to pay fees for much needed prescriptions until the kinks are worked out of the system.

The obvious advantage is price, Canadian drugs are cheaper because the Canadian government controls drug prices and drug manufacturers participate in the national health plan ? simply speaking-the Canadian government placed a cap on drug prices.

Canadian drugs do indeed go through a drug approval process similar to the very standards set by the American FDA. Canadian drug approval is governed by an agency called Health Canada using a systematic testing process known as bioavailability testing that assures the drugs are safe for human consumption.

Another plus is that drugs from Canada are manufactured in Canada under the standards set by Health Canada and lastly, Canadian pharmacies ship to American customers with valid prescriptions utilizing the convenience of online ordering.

Right now, a lot of Americans are thankful for the Internet and the affordability of Canadian drugs to help them out in this time of uncertainty.

State moving ahead on Canadian drugs

The proposed regulations would prohibit shipments of controlled substances and would bar drugs being shipped from off-shore affiliates and not from Canada.

Drugs that would be permitted would have to appear on both the lists of Health Canada, the agency that oversees Canadian drugs, and the Food and Drug Administration.

Leslie said the Pharmacy Board is "being conservative and protecting the public and that's fine." But she said the pharmaceutical companies "have to act more responsibly."

Canada Drugs: To Buy Or Not To Buy?

It's a crisis situation to need drugs and not be able to afford them. It has driven many people to look outside the United States for solutions, with cheaper Canada drugs a possible solution.

The survey of 120 pharmacies across New York, 8 of which were in Buffalo, revealed a substantial difference in cost if prescription drugs were filled in Canada rather than the United States.

It was determined that if Buffalo-area residents purchased the popular arthritis drug Celebrex (Celecoxib) in Canada they could save $671 a year.

The FDA is responsible only for drugs marketed and sold inside the United States.

The FDA has several concerns about imported drugs including quality assurance concerns, counterfeit potential, presence of untested substances, risk of unsupervised use, labeling and language issues and lack of information.

Prescription drugs: The facts about Canada

A long list of states and cities, including Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Boston, and Portland, Maine, have set up programs to help residents and employees import Canadian drugs priced on average 25 to 50 percent below those on the U.S. market.

Almost 70 percent of the 1,400 people surveyed by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health in November 2004 said that allowing citizens to order drugs from Canada would make medicines more affordable without sacrificing safety or quality.

Canadian drugs are not as safe as U.S. drugs. False.

Canada's manufacturing and regulatory system is comparable to that of the U.S.

Canada's pricing and distribution system is less likely to foster the drug counterfeiting that concerns the FDA.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said that all of the prescription drugs it ordered from Canadian Internet pharmacies contained the proper chemical compositions, were shipped in accordance with special handling requirements, and arrived undamaged.

Canadian drugs are not always cheaper. True.

Canadian Drugs, Banned by FDA, Are Safe as Those Sold in U.S.

Prescription medicines from Canada, banned from the U.S., are at least as safe as those sold by American drugstores, according to a Harvard University professor, state regulators and Canadian authorities.

Inspections and anti-counterfeiting measures in Canada and other industrialized countries are just as effective as U.S. systems, said Jerry Avorn, a Harvard Medical School drug safety specialist. Carmen Catizone, president of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, a state regulators' group, rates U.S. and Canadian drugs as equally safe.

Americans bought more than $1 billion in medicines last year from Canada, where government regulations hold prices as much as 70 percent lower than in the U.S.

Drugs sold in Canada come from many of the same factories that supply the U.S.

They're the very same pills coming down the chute into identical bottles,'' said Gary Passmore, staff director of the Congress of California Seniors advocacy group.

Wholesalers in Europe have used international trade in prescription drugs to save consumers money for more than 20 years.

Flu vaccine is available in Canada at about $2 a dose, compared with $8 to $9 in the U.S.

Canadian drugs aren't the cure

The cheaper Canadian drugs are the same ones sold at higher prices in the United States.

Why are they cheaper up north? Because Canada has a policy of controlling drug prices through its national health insurance system.

The pharmaceutical lobby has so much power in the United States that cheaper drug prices are off the political radar screen.

The news media have generally accepted the nonsensical premise that the battle is about imports and that the issue is the safety of drugs from Canada. This is the drug industry line, and it's a complete red herring.

There is no documented case of an American getting sick because of tainted or adulterated drugs brought in from Canada. On the contrary, Canadian safety standards are at least as strict as our own.

The administration is actually pressing America's trading partners who have lower drug prices to raise those prices so that our high prices won't stick out like a sore thumb.

Economist Dean Baker has calculated that only about one dollar in five that US consumers spend on inflated drug prices go to finance drug research.

NOTE: Even though the title says that Canadian drugs aren't the cure, what the author means is that we should fix the problem with overpriced drugs in the U.S. rather than buying from Canada. Until we do that, however, the best solution at this time is to order your medicines and prescription drugs online and have them shipped from a Canadian pharmacy.

Canadian Relief - Crossing the border

The alternative of buying prescription drugs in Canada is increasingly advertised, by word of mouth, in news stories, and on the Internet.

If we subscribe, as free societies are supposed to do, to free trade, the consumer is entitled to search out sellers of the product who are willing to make it available cheaper than one can get it at home.

Peter Jennings of ABC cited a 64-year-old nun who is taking three medications to treat high cholesterol, gout, and thyroid. "I have no health insurance. I only make $15,000 a year and I can't spend it all on medicines. Last year, I spent $1,068 on three drugs, Lipitor, Allopurinol, and Synthroid. This year I'll be spending about $640. The savings are amazing."

FDA: U.S. generics better buy than Canada drugs

Americans who buy drugs in Canada in hopes of saving money could pay significantly more for certain medicines than if they had purchased generic versions at home.

Canadian price controls mean that brand-name drugs there can cost as little as half the U.S. price.

Generic versions cost much less than their brand-name counterparts, however, and the U.S. generics market is considered the world's most competitive.

Xanax had the highest disparity. The Canadian brand was roughly nine times the price, per milligram, of the U.S. generic. Next was Vasotec, five times the price of the U.S. generic.

Glucophage was the exception. The U.S. generic actually cost 39 percent more per milligram than Canada's brand-name version.

Using generics is not an alternative for everyone because new drugs sell for several years before generic competition is allowed.

NOTE: This report is mostly based on quotes from the FDA, a government agency that some would say is influenced by politics. However, U.S. generic drugs may actually be cheaper in some cases than the Canadian brand name counterpart. For the best deal on price, do a search for a particular drug on our website and we'll tell you which source is currently cheaper.

More cities, states opt for Canadian drugs

A growing number of cities, counties and states say they want to allow employees, retirees and ordinary citizens to purchase prescription drugs from Canada, where prices are lower because the government controls what drugmakers can charge.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois asked for federal permission to set up a pilot program that would import medications from Canada.

Many legal observers say the FDA may have little recourse but to fight each city and state.

If enough cities and states enact cross-border drug programs, it will prompt Congress to change drug law and bring costs for medicine in the USA down to the level they are in the rest of the world.

Why should the U.S. pay twice as much as what everyone else does?

Some lawmakers want to make it easier for residents to bring drugs in from Canada.

The FDA has made a move to halt one city's program. After Springfield, Mass., began offering its cross-border drug program earlier this year, the FDA sent warning letters.

Supporters of Canadian drug purchases say the safety issue is misleading. Drugs from Canada, they say, are just as safe as drugs bought in the USA.

Drugs from Canada must be at least 20% cheaper than what can be found locally to be included on the city's list. Downes says most of the drugs cost 40% to 60% less than in the United States.

The program has been so successful in saving money, Downes says, that a 15% co-payment that patients were charged was dropped in November. So employees who choose to get their drugs through Canada get them free.

Once just a trickle, Canada's Rx drugs pouring into USA

It began as a novelty: grannies riding buses to Canada in search of cheaper medicines. But today, that search has mushroomed into a cross-border war that pits desperate consumers and defiant state and local governments against the powerful pharmaceutical industry and the Bush administration.

The border war is being driven by a rapid rise in the cost of medications and the frustration of one in four U.S. seniors who have no drug coverage.

It's also fueled by the tepid economy and rising unemployment in the USA, the ease of long-distance commerce over the Internet and increased awareness of significantly lower drug prices in Canada.

Frustrated by Washington's inability to control health costs, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has proposed establishing a drug importation program for state employees and retirees.

Governors in Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota are considering similar moves ? steps that would institutionalize the trade on an unprecedented scale.

By hugging high prices in a death-grip, the drugmakers increase public anger and thereby become the main force for legislative action to simply cut prices.

In political terms, President Bush and the GOP, which have received tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, find themselves heading toward an election year defending drugmakers' pricing practices that charge Americans the highest prices in the world.

Americans 65 and older are the largest consumers of health care. Many take multiple medicines that consume a large share of their fixed incomes.

The bottom line to this whole thing is you have ordinary God-fearing people who live in the U.S. who cannot afford their medicine.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans who lack drug insurance are taking advantage of Canada's government-regulated prices without leaving home. They're using the Internet, faxes, phones and mail to fill prescriptions.

The pharmaceutical industry has begun to retaliate, too. U.S. drugmakers have curtailed sales to certain big Canadian sellers and have threatened to limit supplies to others.

They cannot tell you a single case they've discovered of anybody getting ill from Canadian drugs.

The drug industry is one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington. It employs hundreds of lobbyists, more than one for every member of Congress.

The savings available from Canada are so great ? 85% less than U.S. prices on some drugs, such as the breast-cancer treatment Tamoxifen ? that they are impossible to ignore.

An overwhelming 71% of Americans in a recent USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll supported legalizing prescription drug sales from Canada.

No Wonder Seniors Buy Canadian Drugs

The Canadian cross-border trade in pharmaceuticals continues to expand with the opening of a Web site for doctors willing to act as go-betweens for their elderly patients.

Some older Americans have for years headed across the United States' northern border to buy the medicines they need but can't afford. Drug prices there can be half or a quarter of prices in the United States.

Canadian drug prices are so much lower because the country's system of socialized medicine keeps a tight hold on pharmaceutical costs. In addition, U.S. drug prices are high because companies add the cost of research and development as well as the price of lobbying and expensive advertising campaigns.

A Vermont woman who paid $95 a month for the tamoxifen that kept breast cancer at bay now goes to Canada, where the drug costs her $125 a year.

Some charitable organizations sponsor drug-buying trips, and a small industry has sprung up to help seniors.

Using a fax machine, a standardized prescription form and the patient's credit card number, doctors can have drugs shipped to their office, where patients can pick them up.