by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Nov 15, 2019 | Drug Importation
Millions of people are dying because they are not getting the healthcare they need and that includes prescription drugs. New research has made a slam dunk case for why international online pharmacy options are needed urgently. We can’t allow drug companies to continue fooling the public about drug importation.
A Gallup
Poll survey announced yesterday found that 34 million Americans know
someone who died because they could not afford medical treatments. That doesn’t
mean prescription drug affordability specifically was the cause. In fact, the
Gallup Poll lacks details about what kinds of medical treatments were too
expensive. However, the poll identifies that a rising percentage of Americans
are reporting going without prescriptions because of cost: from 18.9% in
January to 22.9% in September of 2019. That would be about 58 million Americans
who say they did not fill a prescription in the past 12 months because of cost.
Since pharmacies in other countries charge much lower prices, and properly
credentialed international online pharmacies make those drugs available, the
veracity of the title of this blog post is undeniable.
(more…)Tagged with: Congressional House Ways and Means Committee, Dr. Nicky J. Mehtani, Gallup Poll
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Nov 8, 2019 | Drug Importation
There are few people more supportive than I am of prescription drug importation as one policy to help Americans access lower drug prices. But, since I accuse Big Pharma types and the FDA of ignoring reality about the safety of personal drug imports from licensed pharmacies in Canada and other countries, I won’t ignore reality! Canada is concerned about momentum on drug importation coming from the Trump administration and states, particularly Florida, citing its relatively small population and limited drug supplies. The answer is not to pull back on importation, but to expand the scope of countries in the supply network.
As reported in Reuters earlier this week, the Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. stated that she is “sympathetic to U.S. concerns regarding affordable prescription drugs.” On the other hand, she said, “Not only are we too small of a market, Canada cannot increase its domestic pharmaceutical drug supply to meet U.S. demand…” It’s not incredibly cynical of me to suggest that drug company lobbyists, who work internationally, have spoken with Canadian diplomats and said, “Look, we’re not going to increase your supply of far less expensive medicine just so Florida’s state importation plan can work and Trump can get a political win.”
(more…)Tagged with: Canada, Donald Trump, importation
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Nov 1, 2019 | Big Pharma
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
This week, I simply want to bring your attention to an article in The New Republic called “The Toxic Nationalism of the Pharmaceutical Industry.” Basically, the author Audrey Farley describes how the pharmaceutical industry has employed nationalism, racism, and prejudice in its communications and lobbying strategies that put profits over patients. To temper any hyperbolic mudslinging at the industry, overall, I note a disclaimer that most individuals working for drug companies are certainly no more biased or racist than other industries. My point is that Ms. Farley’s article just goes deeper in showing how disgusting and stupid the industry can actually be.
I’ll give two examples, the first I’ve written about before (but not as well). The Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Improvement Act of 2003 included legalizing the importation of lower-cost medicines from Canada, as long as the Secretary of Health and Human Services certified that the new imports would pose no additional safety risks and would yield substantial savings. The next year, someone from the Pharmaceutical and Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) commissioned the writing of a fictional novel in which Muslim terrorists poison the drug supply in Canada to kill Americans who were buying lower-cost medicine from Canada.
(more…)Tagged with: Audrey Farley, the new republic
