by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | May 18, 2018 | Drug Importation
In its wisdom and activist spirit, Vermont has a new law on the books allowing for the wholesale importation of FDA-approved drugs from authorized wholesalers in Canada. Canadian wholesale pharmacies sell many brand-name drugs at much lower costs than their U.S. counterparts. This could help patients pay lower prices at local pharmacies and the state to save money on its pharmacy bills.
Some people (oh, I don’t know, ones sponsored by Big Pharma) are saying that the drug importation program is illegal. Let me tell you why that’s ridiculous – and I’m using a kind word. The new law does not allow pharmacies in Vermont to import medication from Canadian wholesale pharmacies; at least not yet. Instead, Vermont will ask permission from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement an importation program. It will try and prove to the department that its program will be safe and compliant with federal law. If the Secretary of Health and Human Services certifies the program, which is permissible under current law, only then will Vermont bear the fruits of its labors and begin importing from Canada.
I wrote more extensively about similar legislation introduced in Utah, which passed the House but failed to make it through the Utah Senate. Here’s that analysis: Rep. Norman Thurston’s Utah Drug Importation Bill. It explains, mostly, what this bill is and is not.
What’s amazing and motivating is that Vermont passed this bill 29-0 in the Senate, and 141-2 in the House. Vermont is not putting up with pharma’s bull on importation anymore.
Word up, Vermont!
Tagged with: Vermont
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | May 3, 2018 | Big Pharma
Central to Big Pharma’s lobbying efforts is relying on drug company-funded “nonprofit” groups to sanitize their goals under the veneer of charity. Investigative reporting in Tarbell, a media organization founded by healthcare activist Wendell Potter, shows that drug companies, namely Eli Lilly, successfully lobbied the Obama administration to make Internet companies embrace policies that curtail online access to affordable medication.
These pharma-funded nonprofits engage fellow industry-tied patient groups, the media and people, promoting the idea that rogue online pharmacies and safe international online pharmacies are the same thing. Their message: don’t buy lower-cost medications online from other countries because it’s too dangerous.
That message is an outright lie.
(more…)
Tagged with: Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, ASOP, Big Pharma, Eli Lilly, LegitScript, Obama Administration, tarbell
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Apr 26, 2018 | Drug Prices
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) requested an investigation into drug price increases among the Medicare Part D program’s 20 most widely-prescribed medications over a five-year period. The investigation, conducted by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, found that average annual drug price increases were 12%, about 10 times higher than the rate of inflation. One drug, Nitrostat, increased by 477% during the five-year period. PharmacyChecker decided to find out what the savings would be from international online pharmacies for cash payers on these medications. The average potential prescription savings is 80%, further evidence that seniors can benefit from lower drug prices outside the U.S. when their pharmacy benefits are inadequate.
Adding a little spice to this research, we found that 70% of these 20 medications, the ones sold in U.S. pharmacies, are foreign-made, imported drugs. This shows that importation is legal for drug companies that make medications overseas. The countries where they are made get the manufacturing jobs; we get the higher prices!
And what about those drugs made in the U.S., often in Puerto Rico? You can buy those drugs cheaper in Canada. Synthroid is a perfect example. Synthroid, sold in Canada, is made in Puerto Rico and can be purchased for 15 cents a pill, compared to $1.68 a pill in the U.S.: a 93% savings for the same drug.
Here’s a crazy one: The medication Premarin is made in Canada. It’s $6.93 a pill at a U.S. pharmacy, but can be bought online and filled from a U.K. pharmacy for 17 cents: a 98% savings. In this case, the drug made in Canada is cheaper in the U.K. than in Canada.
And what about Nitrostat, the drug that increased by 477% over the past five years? It’s 80 cents a pill in the U.S. and only 28 cents in Canada. The drug is made in Puerto Rico.
Here’s the news release with all the data: https://www.pharmacychecker.com/news/american-seniors-save-80-percent-medication.asp.
Tagged with: claire mccaskill, investigation, Medicare
