I just received my first shipment of prescription medication from Canada. My reason for getting this particular med from the great white north is because it is no longer manufactured in the United States.

But the point is this: there was a letter enclosed with my Rx.

an exerpt:



I was not quite expecting a politcal message in with my medication, but there it was. And I am wondering now, what is really going on with the drug manufacturers? which companies have cut the entire country of Canada out of their sales and why?

and why can't these pharmaceutical companies stop thinking with their checkbooks and start thinking with their desire to cure, their desire to decrease pain, and their desire to make the lives of sick people a little better?

hmmm...I had no idea that getting medication from Canada would be this interesting.

and why can't these pharmaceutical companies stop thinking with their checkbooks and start thinking with their desire to cure

No kidding, I've noticed that my doctor is becoming less and less stingy with prescribing my soma. I used to get refills for 3-4, now she just has an ongoing refill for me. Suspicious indeed.

I don't know how to capture your quote into my post correctly. Sorry.

Americans and the pharmaceutical industry are definitely going to have to figure out a solution to the ridiculous medication prices, because Canada's healthcare system is not going to be able to withstand a continuing flow of customers from south of the border.

I believe our state-funded healthcare system gets drugs at a much cheaper rate from pharmaceutical companies, but a lot of the low prices available to Canadians comes from subsidies from our medicare system. When non-Canadian tax paying Americans start buying large quantities of drugs that are subsidized by Canadian taxes, there starts to be a problem. With entire communities now getting their drugs in Canada, this system is not going to last much longer.

As for why companies might want to stop selling to Canada... if Americans continue to by their drugs north of the border, where the pharmaceutical companies' profits are smaller, the pharmaceutical companies are going to try to do what they can to get people back paying high prices for their drugs.

FYI, the Vaccines For Children program which provides free vaccines to uninsured children is going to be in jeopardy really, really soon, because new vaccines keep coming out (which are really important) and they cost a forture.

Look at these prices. I bolded the 3 newest vaccines. Those 3 vaccines nearly doubled the cost of immunizing a kid.

DTaP (3 diseases): $21.40 (5)
Polio: $21.80 (4)
Hepatitis A: $30.37 (2)
Hepatitis B: $21.37 (3)
Hib: $22.77 (4)
Meningococcal: $82.00 (1)
MMR (3 diseases): $40.37 (2)
Pneumococcal: $65.95 (4)
Chickenpox: $66.81 (1)
Td (2 diseases): $17.50

(These are private sector prices. The government pays less, but you can see the cost and multiply it by millions. http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vfc/cdc_vac_price_list.htm)

What European companies?? I need to pick up more drugs off teh internets!

Are overseas prices really that much cheaper?

i used to get this same Rx from Europe (the pharmacy i used stopped their mail order). it was about $15 cheaper.

and i'm keeping my fingers crossed that this Rx from Canada will have the same potency as the one from Europe.

Didn't you jsut admit to a crime? I thought importing mediine from Canada was illegal now.

Far from the first criminal admission on RM.

see, that is what i am unclear on.

this is the process:

1) i get a legal Rx from my doctor.

2) i fill out the Canadian pharmacy medical forms, attach my Rx, give them my credit card #, and then fax it to the pharmacy.

3) their doctor looks over my medical information and Rx, and (presumably) writes a new Rx that the pharmacy can fill.

4) i receive my medication 10-15 days later, and there is much rejoicing.

if this is illegal and i get called to task for it, you better believe i am going to make the biggest stink known to womankind. It is plain and simple why I am using a Canadian pharmacy: i cannot get this medication in the US (and it is not a "fun" medication if that is what you all are thinking). and if some pharmaceutical advocate asswipe tries to make an example out of the likes of me...well then that means war.

i just don't get it...why are these big drug companies making life so difficult for the people who really need their medication?

some people would defend big pharma and say that they have to charge those prices so they can fund further research, but i have it on good authority (from someone who used to work in big pharma sales) that this is a load of horseshit.

I don't think you'd ever get called to task on it, but none of what you said is an acceptable legal argument against a drug smuggling charge.

too fucking bad.

so because big pharma can't make enough money on my particular migraine abortive it is illegal for me to get proper medical treatment? again, too fucking bad.

if big pharma would pay attention to real live patients and diseases that devastate lives, instead of fucking around with stupid shit like impotency med formulas for men and women, someone might actually develop a medication that kept me from having migraines at all.

*steps off soap box*

Hey, I'm not judging you. I'm not even saying that you're wrong ... just calling it like I see it.

i know...its just that i am so completely pissed that:

1) the only migraine abortive that works for me is no longer made in the US

2) dumbass dubya has made stupid fucking laws making it "illegal" for people like me to get the medication I need.

3) if this medication were available here in the US, i would be paying 1/2 of what i have to pay for it now.

when is all this inequity going to end?

Just out of curosity, have you ever gone to a neurologist about your migraines?

To be fair, I think the laws making this illegal existed long before Bush was president.

okay, but the laws are still ridiculous, and i am still stridently peeved about it all.