A new report from Reuters suggests that pricing pressures resulting from Obamacare may close U.S. and international prescription drug price disparities – with U.S. prices more than double those of other high-income countries – within three to five years. As good as that could be, it’s a long way away for Americans who currently struggle with drug prices. With tens of millions going without meds due to cost, the problem is more urgent than ever.
U.S. brand-name drug prices continue their vigorous rise, in stark contrast to international price declines. Brand-name U.S. drug prices rose 11% in 2011, almost triple the 3% inflation rate. Meanwhile, prices in Canada stayed the same, and actually dropped in France and Switzerland by 3 and 4 percent, respectively.
Reuters politely explains this gap:
“Companies like Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca have grown dependent on higher U.S. prices to generate profits as generic rivals to their best-selling medicines enter the world market, Europe’s government-run health plans clamp down on spending and sales growth in emerging markets stutters.”
Look at the price of Januvia, a drug mentioned in the Reuters article. Its wholesale price is 75% higher in the U.S. than in Austria. Our own research shows the price gap at the retail level. The price at a local pharmacy for 90 pills is $978. It costs only $375 online from a verified Canadian pharmacy. That’s 62% cheaper.
Hopefully, the Affordable Care Act will lead to reduced drug prices domestically, but that will take some time. Until then international online pharmacies will remain a lifeline for Americans.
The number of Americans not taking medication due to high drug prices – a public health crisis – has increased dramatically over the past decade. Last year, drug prices deterred 50 million Americans ages 19-64 from filling a prescription, a 28% increase since 2003 and 4% increase since 2010, according to the Commonwealth Fund’s 2012 Biennial Health Insurance Survey. The survey measures gaps in medical care due to cost, such as forgone doctors’ visits, medical tests, specialist care, and prescription medications. The prescription-use data for 2012 was derived from answers to the following question: In the last 12 months, was there any time when you did not fill a prescription for medicine because of the cost? This fifty million – a staggering figure – does not even include seniors or children who also did not fill a prescription due to cost.
Not surprisingly, the problems for the uninsured are much greater, especially for those with chronic conditions. Sixty percent of uninsured Americans with a chronic condition skipped taking medication in 2012 due to cost, compared to 14% of insured Americans. Overall, the figure was 28%; that’s 18 million out of sixty-six million adults with hypertension or high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, emphysema, lung disease, or heart disease who reported skipping medication.
As far as seniors skipping meds goes, a recent Walgreens survey may have some answers. It found that 37% of Medicare enrollees are concerned about their drug costs and 20% delay filling prescriptions or skip doses to manage costs. That’s almost an additional eight million (using U.S. Census data for 2011) Americans not adhering to prescriptions due to high drug prices. Walgreens attributes such dismal numbers to the fact that people are unaware of cost-saving alternatives, such as the fact that co-pays vary among pharmacies and limited knowledge of how Part D prescription plans work.
Other reasons seniors skip medication are because their Part D plans do not cover brand name medications prescribed by their doctors and the “donut hole,” a coverage gap in Medicare drug plans that has fortunately begun to close due to Obamacare .
We’re happy to note that the Commonwealth Fund’s report shows that more insured Americans under Obamacare in the years to come could alleviate medical cost problems for millions of Americans. We’ll explore in a future blog post new data on how Americans are addressing the problem of high drug prices.
Last year, PharmacyChecker.com criticized BeSafeRx, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s online pharmacy public education campaign, for implying that all online pharmacies located outside the U.S. are fake pharmacies. BeSafeRx discourages Americans who cannot afford medicine at their local pharmacies from accessing medicine online internationally, which has been shown to be safe if done properly. Real pharmacies in Canada and other countries sell the same medication sold here for much lower prices. Misinformation becomes a public health threat when it discourages people from finding viable ways of accessing needed medication. BeSafeRx has a new database program that enables consumers to check the license of a U.S. pharmacy found online. That’s nice, but the program reinforces the message that Americans should only buy from U.S. pharmacies, never over the Internet from foreign pharmacies. What is the FDA’s logic?
Here is an excerpt from the FDA’s website on importing prescription drugs:
FDA cannot ensure the safety and effectiveness of products that are not FDA-approved and come from unknown sources and foreign locations, or that may not have been manufactured under proper conditions. These unknowns put patient’s health at risk if they cannot be sure of the products identity, purity, and source. For these reasons, FDA recommends only obtaining medicines from legal sources in the U.S.
Just because the FDA does not vouch for prescription medication sold in other countries does not mean that prescription medications sold abroad are less safe than those sold domestically. There are other national drug regulatory authorities to help safeguard medication. For example, Health Canada’s Therapeutic Products Directorate approves and regulates drugs in Canada in almost exactly the same way the FDA does here. Americans who order medication from safe international online pharmacies, such as those verified by PharmacyChecker.com, receive medication regulated under the authority of a foreign country.
The new FDA database is only helpful if you need to check the license of a U.S. pharmacy found online with prices you can afford. If you can’t afford to pay a pharmacy’s prices, the safety of its medications are irrelevant.
We applaud RxRights.org for its critical advocacy efforts on behalf of Americans who are struggling to afford prescription medication, including recent actions to defend the truth about safe international online pharmacies and savings. One new blog post features three video testimonials from Americans who import their medication, and another explains the facts about international online pharmacies. Check out Gary’s story:
First, Gary and the other Americans who offered testimonials should be commended for having the courage to speak up about ordering medication from international online pharmacies and discussing their drug affordability problems.
Gary orders his diabetes medication from Canada so he doesn’t have to forgo other needed household goods. He has been buying medication from Canada for many years and has “never had the first bit of problems.” But the drug companies – and even the FDA – will lead you to believe that this is dangerous! So why is Gary so comfortable using international online pharmacies?
Well, the other blog post gives us the answer: The only real difference between medications sent by mail from a licensed international pharmacy and what you can find in a neighborhood pharmacy is the cost. In fact, you can save between 50 and 80 percent by ordering online internationally and receive the same exact medicine!
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) has applied to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to operate the registry .Pharmacy (dot pharmacy). Opposition to the application is picking up steam. Many believe that NABP’s efforts will merely serve to protect U.S. pharmacy and pharmaceutical interests at the expense of the public health by barring competition from safe non-U.S., international online pharmacies, which sell the same prescription drugs sold in the U.S. at a much lower price. Not only is the NABP application to ICANN is funded by pharmaceutical companies, but NABP’s named “Partners” in the ICANN application include Eli Lilly, a large drug company and the National Association of Chain Drugstores, a trade association representing the largest American pharmacy chains.
Opposition to NABP’s application to ICANN for .Pharmacy Registry
If given the power to oversee the registry for the .Pharmacy top-level domain, the NABP would decide which websites are permitted to use the .Pharmacy ending in their web address. It appears that the NABP’s proposed registry rules would prohibit registry to websites of safe international online pharmacies (such as websites run by licensed Canadian pharmacies) if they sell internationally to Americans. The lack of a “.Pharmacy” address by such pharmacies could frighten Americans away from using them. Considering that tens of millions of Americans don’t take medication due to high U.S. drug prices, discouraging or blocking access to affordable medication is unconscionable.
As recognized in a letter sent from RxRights.org to NABP, it does not have to be this way. The goal of providing a trusted marketplace for consumers who are searching online for safe and affordable medication can be served with a .Pharmacy website program. However, to provide the greatest benefit to consumers, ALL online pharmacies, U.S., Canadian, or otherwise, that sell authentic medication and require prescriptions should be eligible to obtain a .Pharmacy site, regardless of who they sell to. Unless the NABP agrees to adopt registry rules fostering an open and free Internet, one that maximizes access to safe and affordable medication, its application should be rejected by ICANN.
Prescription drug prices rose 3.6% in America during 2012, more than twice the 1.7% inflation rate, according to a recent USA Today article citing Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Other healthcare costs, including doctor visits, lab tests, and nursing home expenditures increased less than the inflation rate.
Unfortunately, high drug prices are an urgent health crisis in America. An estimated 150 million prescriptions go unfilled each year and 25 million Americans report becoming sicker because they skip medicine, all due to cost. For more on the deadly problem of drug prices, visit RxSOS. These dramatic price increases have a very real effect on American health, and makes the work we do at PharmacyChecker.com all the more important for Americans struggling to afford medication to find safe and affordable medication online
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A source for news and analysis about drug prices and safety, online pharmacies and personal drug importation, published on behalf of American consumers.
Prescription drug prices rose 3.6% in America during 2012, more than twice the 1.7% inflation rate, according to a recent 