by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Nov 22, 2017 | Thanksgiving
Happy Prescription Savings and Affordability
In America, the richest country in the world, 33% of people can’t afford food, shelter, or medical care…and that includes medicine, as reported in a Market Watch article covering the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s national survey. That’s a disgrace.
We know, and remind you almost every week, that tens of million of people aren’t filling prescriptions because of cost each year. Many of them, including the elderly, can’t because food must come first.
It’s my strongest hope that our work at PharmacyChecker helps Americans get the medication prescribed to them, but at a price that also allows them to sit down to a turkey dinner in a peaceful home to celebrate Thanksgiving this year.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tagged with: food, hunger
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Nov 21, 2017 | FDA
November 20, 2017 — Kaiser Health News reported that the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations sent agents and search warrants to several companies in Florida — often referred to as pharmacy storefronts — because they help Americans place orders and fill prescriptions with pharmacies located in Canada in addition to other countries.
Read the full story here: FDA Raids Florida Stores That Consumers Use to Buy Drugs from Canada
The FDA has a lot of regulatory latitude to shape its enforcement agenda. Its efforts against counterfeit drug sales, opioid pushers (including drug companies), and rogue websites can greatly protect public health. However, we know that FDA/OCI has a history of actions more focused on protecting the profits of pharmaceutical companies.
PharmacyChecker.com opposes enforcement actions that target the safest international pharmacy options, whether via online pharmacies or storefronts, on which many Americans have come to rely because they can’t afford medications locally.
FDA has informed storefront operators that prescription drug importation is illegal and that they could face fines or jailtime for helping Americans buy lower-cost medication. (more…)
Tagged with: Enforcement, Florida, opioids, storefronts
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Nov 17, 2017 | Politics and policy
This week, President Trump potentially handed Big Pharma one of its greatest victories by appointing Alex Azar the new Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Why? Until earlier this year, Alex Azar was the president of Eli Lilly USA and few people (companies are people?) on earth personify Big Pharma like Eli Lilly.
This matters to Americans who import lower cost medication to fill prescriptions because the FDA is an agency housed in HHS, and HHS has a lot of statutory power when it comes to importation of prescription drugs.
President Trump campaigned on making it legal for Americans to buy lower-cost medications from other countries, but Eli Lilly and Alex Azar are leading opponents of safe importation. In fact, Eli Lilly is perhaps the leader when it comes to hatching, or funding, strategic communications and lobbying campaigns to stop Americans from using safe, international online pharmacies. Its efforts through the non-profit group, Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies—FUNDED BY ELI LILLY—have been frighteningly successful at fooling our elected officials and the public that international online pharmacies are inherently bad for Americans. They do so by conflating counterfeit drugs and even fentanyl abuse with safe international online pharmacies. As I see it, Eli Lilly’s narrative on online pharmacy and importation incorporates the most sinister aspects of fake news. Really. (more…)
Tagged with: Alex Azar, Eli Lilly, HHS, trump
