by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Sep 4, 2020 | Drug Importation
I can’t stop thinking about Trump’s so-called “Most Favored Nation” executive order on drug prices. I know that’s kind of sad considering I’m on vacation.
Keeping it short, when Trump announced his four executive orders on drug prices at the end of July, one of them seemed to be touted as the nuclear option. Spewing the rhetoric Americans want to hear about how he is standing up to Big Pharma, Trump announced that they would get the lowest price on drugs in Medicare:
“We will determine what other medically advanced nations pay for the most expensive drugs, and instead of paying the highest price, Medicare will pay the lowest price and so will lots of other U.S. buyers.”
Somewhere along the line, that order, which oddly was the only one of four that was not made public, was referred to as Most Favored Nation (MFN). MFN is one of the core concepts of international trade agreements. It means that countries party to the agreement get the same low tariffs and other benefits as the others: better terms than those who are not party to the agreement.
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by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Aug 28, 2020 | Big Pharma
Originally published on PharmacyChecker.com.
In America, tens of millions of people are skipping necessary medications because the prices are too high. PharmacyChecker exists to help people, mostly Americans, find prescription drug safety and savings information on the Internet. Founded in 2002, our greatest accomplishment is verifying and identifying the safest international online pharmacies, sites that process orders filled by licensed pharmacies in Canada and different countries that require a prescription. We’re bestknown for comparing drug prices among properly credentialed online pharmacies.
This week the Business Leaders for Health Care Transformation (BLHCT) sent a letter to the CEO of Microsoft, signed by over 1,100 business owners, CEOs, and entrepreneurs and nearly 40 non-profit organizations:
“We do not all believe that having to personally import prescription medicines, using online pharmacies or otherwise, is the best solution for high drug prices in America, but we all recognize that it can be done safely and is a lifeline for many. To that effect, PharmacyChecker plays a valuable role in protecting consumers’ safety.”
The elephant in the room here: personal importation of prescription drugs is technically illegal under most circumstances. We get that. Still, millions of Americans buy medications from other countries each year, often online, because of cost and they are never prosecuted for doing so. Here’s the thing: We don’t sell medication, process or distribute prescription drugs in any manner. We verify and provide information. Period.
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by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Aug 20, 2020 | Prescription Savings
I just love this! A new post on the Ask PharmacyChecker resource section is called “How to Get a 99% Off Your Prescription (without ordering from Canada).” Taking a break from the politics and policy I find myself writing about on these blog pages, I want to brag about PharmacyChecker’s domestic savings. More than ever, if an American compares drug prices on PharmacyChecker.com, they will learn that most generic drugs are far cheaper domestically than in Canada – or, in some cases, even India. The PharmacyChecker Discount Card helps people in the U.S. afford medication at their local pharmacy.
Many of you know that prices on the same brand name drugs sold outside the U.S. are often 90% lower. The only thing crazier than those price discrepancies are the generic drug price discrepancies within America, in the same state, town, even on the same street! [Keep in mind, we’re talking about cash-paying customers: People without health insurance or those with health insurance who can pay less out-of-pocket.]
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