In 2001, in a Wall Street Journal article called “Survey Shows U.S. Customs Allows Illegal Foreign Medication,” then Congressman James Greenwood (R-PA) expressed his belief that Americans who import medications, even illegally, for their own use, should be able to. As president and chief executive of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), which represents leading biopharmaceutical companies (such as Abbvie, Amgen, Celgene, and Gilead), he has changed his tune.
Flashback to 2001…
Congressman Greenwood, who chaired the House Commerce oversight committee, stuck up for cash strapped older Americans. Congressman Greenwood said:
“While we would like to stop dangerous drugs from being brought in for abuse and stop people from getting drugs that are counterfeit or bogus, we don’t want to interfere … with an older person getting a better buy.”
He was referring to Americans importing small quantities of non-controlled, prescription drugs for their own use because they cost a lot less money than at U.S. pharmacies.
Properly Verified International Online Pharmacies Sell Genuine and Safe Medication
Last month, Roger Bate, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and head of the Safe Medicines Coalition, published the results of a study which tested and compared the quality of drugs purchased from online pharmacies in the U.S. and abroad, including pharmacies verified by third-parties and those not verified. The findings were clear: PharmacyChecker-approved international online pharmacies sell medications of comparable quality to U.S. online pharmacies verified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) and LegitScript.
In fact, overall, the results were better for PharmacyChecker-verified pharmacies than for those verified by NABP and LegitScript. Results were dramatically worse for pharmacies with no third-party verification. The drug testing focused on generic versions of Lipitor (atorvastatin) and of generic Cipro (ciprofloxacin), which were ordered from the online pharmacies by the researchers. (more…)
There’s Rx Savings for Americans in Canada and Elsewhere If Needed!
Last week, we issued our first PharmacyChecker.com quarterly International Drug Price Savings Report, which showed that American consumers can potentially save, on average, 70% on 20 top-prescribed brand name drugs when buying from a Canadian pharmacy approved in our Verification Program. The report shows international pharmacy savings by country or group of countries: U.S., Canada, Australia/New Zealand/UK, India, and Turkey. We intend to issue this savings report every three months.
We chose the 20 medications based on IMS Health data on the most popularly prescribed non-controlled medications in 2015, and the prices were collected during February and March 2017. Ten of the medications are available in the U.S. as a generic, in which case American consumers will often – but not always – find the lowest prices locally.
Something unexpected happened at a dog and pony show staged at the National Press Club on April 4, where the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) gave its campaign against prescription drug importation and international online pharmacies the imprimatur of technocratic expertise. Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach, in opposing importation as unsafe, and “frightening” said that 29 countries have regulatory systems for drug safety comparable to the U.S. Was that a mistake? No. We need to get that list of 29 countries and create standards for distribution and refine guidance for consumers to help more Americans import lower cost medications from those countries.
I derived the number 29 because Dr. Eschenbach said: “of the 96 countries around the world that can supply drugs only 30% have a functional regulatory infrastructure that’s comparable to the one that we have at the Food and Drug Administration.” Simple math showed 30% of 96 is 28.8. I rounded to 29!
Granted, Dr. Eschenbach would say that I was taking his words out of context. (more…)
In her new book, American Sickness, Elisabeth Rosenthal, MD, an award-winning journalist, currently chief editor of Kaiser Health News, and formerly with the New York Times, recommends visiting PharmacyChecker.com to consumers who choose to import more affordable medications for themselves or their family members via online pharmacies.
In general, Ms. Rosenthal’s book explains why our healthcare system is such a mess in terms of consumer and government costs; who is responsible; how we can make things better – and most importantly – what consumers can do NOW to take on the special interests and save money. It’s a great book for citizens, healthcare advocates and policy makers who want a deeper understanding of what ails our healthcare system. (more…)
The head of LegitScript.com, John Horton, likes to falsely claim that PharmacyChecker “pretends” that international online pharmacies are “just Canadian” when they “really” sell drugs from other countries. The only one pretending, as usual, is Mr. Horton.
To offer the most affordable prices, online pharmacies in Canada give consumers the option to have prescriptions filled not only by licensed pharmacies in Canada, but by licensed pharmacies following similarly strict pharmacy practices in other countries with even lower drug prices. We believe this is in the consumer’s best interest and we have said so many times, including a news release in 2004 and a blog post called “So You Want to Buy Medication from An Actual Canadian Pharmacy, Here’s the Deal…”
To be sure this is done properly, the online pharmacies verified by PharmacyChecker must disclose to us all partner pharmacies — as we must check and verify their credentials — and the online pharmacies are required to let consumers know, ahead of time, the country from which their medications will be dispensed. Furthermore, our listing of PharmacyChecker.com Verified Online Pharmacies includes the names of the countries from which each online pharmacy dispenses prescription medications.
Of course, there are many rogue pharmacies to watch out for that claim to be Canadian, or even American, but don’t require a prescription, and are not verified for any standards by any organization. We should all work together to protect consumers from such rogues, not fool Americans into believing that safe international online pharmacies don’t exist – which appears to be the approach favored by Mr. Horton, LegitScript, and Pharma-funded groups.
We assume that John Horton and his big pharma allies and shills will continue to attack us because of our continuing efforts to verify and identify the safest international online pharmacies, advocate for safe personal drug importation, reveal pharma’s scare tactics and expose their lies. We can deal with that. It’s just a shame that they do it at the expense of Americans who need affordable medication but may be scared away from the reliable pharmacies that are available.
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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.
