My wife, with Parkinson's disease, is the dreaded doughnut hole. A recent prescription would have cost us $565. I found I could fill the prescription through a licensed Canadian pharmacy for $49---from the same U.S. manufacturer! Mike

Patient safety in drug importation

posted Thu, 4 Aug 2011

The Partnership for Safe Medicines recently issued a public health alert about online pharmacies selling “non-FDA approved” medicines. This group (whose executive director has a high-ranking position with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) has released a flurry of similar news items this week that seem to be geared towards scaring consumers away from online drug importation.

We agree that patient safety is of the utmost importance, and we admit that there are rogue pharmacies out there selling counterfeit medications. Those illegal operations do need to be stopped.

However, with the exorbitant costs of prescription drugs in the U.S.—sometimes as much as 50 to 80 percent more (for the very same brand-name medication that can be purchased in Canada and other countries outside the U.S.) Americans still need an affordable alternative.

Americans have been importing prescriptions for personal use for years. It started with cross-border bus trips to Canada so that seniors could access their medications affordably, but with the advent of the Internet, online importation has become even more convenient and affordable alternative.

Cost is the primary reason that over a million Americans import their prescription drugs. And with careful consumer education, problems can be avoided. That’s why we regularly caution our readers about their online purchases and point them to tips for choosing a safe online pharmacy.

We believe that Americans should have the right to access safe and affordable medications from trusted, legitimate online pharmacies based in Canada and other countries. Consumers import their medications through pharmacies that are verified or accredited by some of the RxRights Coalition members, including PharmacyChecker.com, Pharmacy Accreditation Services, and the Canadian International Pharmacy Association.

These accreditors help consumers to distinguish the “good guys”—the licensed, legitimate pharmacies that require a doctor’s prescription to order medicine—and the “bad guys”—the rogues who sell everything from diluted or fake medicine to narcotics.

In addition, as we’ve mentioned in the past, “FDA-approved” is by no means the only measure of drug safety. Other countries also have excellent systems for regulating pharmaceuticals (some arguably safer than our own).

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