The personal drug importation saga continues in the State of Maine this this week as legislators consider a bill that would allow state residents to order prescription medication from foreign pharmacies. The bill follows in the wake of – and as a response to – Maine Attorney General William Schneider’s suspension of drug importation programs last September. Pressured by local pharmacies, Schneider argued that licensed foreign pharmacies could not sell to Maine residents because they were not licensed by Maine.
As the bill’s name makes clear, An Act to Ensure Consumer Choice in the Purchase of Prescription Drugs (LD 449) aims to preserve consumer choice and facilitate personal drug importation in order to bring down drug costs. This bill calls for legal personal importation from the following countries: Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, South Africa, and any country in the European Union or European Economic Area.
According to a December poll conducted by the Press Herald, 92% of respondents felt that state residents should be allowed to purchase prescription drugs from Canada. LD 449 has support from Governor Paul LePage and the Maine State Employees Association. The City of Portland claims it saved $3.2 million through the importation program suspended by Attorney General Schneider.
The bill also has support from private employers. Scott Wellman, CFO of Hardwood Products Company, cited savings of $638,000 over the six years that the company’s employees imported medicine through CanaRx, a Canadian international mail-order pharmacy service.
The importation bill is noteworthy for declaring the existing legal impediments to importation an “emergency,” requiring that the legislation’s provisions take immediate effect. Maine’s legislators are taking a very progressive stance on personal drug importation, one that we’ll certainly continue to closely follow.
Dr. Roger Bate, an economist who publishes extensively about drug quality, safety, and intellectual property, finds himself a bit out in the cold right now and we think that’s wrong. It’s all because of his latest work on Internet pharmacies and personal drug importation.
He was once a favorite of the pharmaceutical industry. In a 2004 National Review article called “What Patent Problem?” Dr. Bate enraged the progressive, health activist community for arguing that patents are not obstacles to needed medication in poor countries because 95% of World Health Organization Essential Medicines are already off patent. Arguments like those were welcomed by industry, but things have changed. His recent research showing that personal drug importation (which undermines pharmaceutical profits) through online pharmacies can be safe has made him persona non grata in some pharma circles, despite his other positions which support pharma. Unfortunately, it seems the health activist community is also hesitant to embrace Dr. Bate’s current work on personal drug importation, perhaps because they don’t want to lend credence to his past research.
We think it’s time that everyone, including the FDA, listens carefully to what Dr. Bate is saying about personal drug importation. After extensive mystery shopping and testing of products, Dr. Bate came to a very simple conclusion: As long as people purchased medication from websites (foreign or domestic) approved by PharmacyChecker.com or the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, they were generally safe doing so. His data also showed that Americans could save a lot of money (an average of 52%) on brand name medicines from legitimate pharmacies outside the U.S. He believes this option, to be fair, should exist mainly for lower income individuals rather than people able to afford U.S. prices.
Dr. Bate’s conclusions about online pharmacy are an inconvenient truth for the pharmaceutical industry and U.S. pharmacies – which include some of the funders of his employer, the American Enterprise Institute. These industries lobby the government to prevent Americans from accessing drugs online at lower cost from foreign pharmacies. Their strategy has been to ignore Dr. Bate’s findings on Internet pharmacies. The FDA seems to be playing the same game by scaring the public away from personal drug importation through public information campaigns, such as Be Safe Rx.
We know that Dr. Bate’s work on online pharmacies is guided by hard data, objective analysis, and his free market sensibilities. We do not agree with his positions on all subjects, but his studies on drug safety demand respect from all sides and could help policy-makers reach the right conclusions for the public good.
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
Diovan HCT (Valsartan Hydrochlorothiazide) is one of the most popular drugs in America for treating high blood pressure, a condition that afflicts about 68 million Americans and increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Though Diovan HCT became available as a generic at the end of last year, its brand name and generic costs are still high. If you are fed up with these prices, you can find serious savings either by ordering online or using a variety of discounts at your local pharmacy. Here’s the good news: You can save over 80% on both brand and generic versions!
Diovan HCT Discounts:
My local pharmacy in New York City charges $515 for a 90-day supply of Diovan HCT. Expensive! By ordering from a verified international online pharmacy, I found I could save 88% and pay only $63 for a 90-day supply. That’s an annual savings of $1,808. The savings from a discount card, discount coupon, and U.S.-based online pharmacy weren’t so hot – each one saved around $80, or 16%. Check out the price comparisons.
Valsartan Hydrochlorothiazide Discounts:
Even though generic Diovan HCT is available as Valsartan Hydrochlorothiazide in the U.S., it is still expensive at $369.99 for 90 pills. Once again, the best savings were found are from verified international online pharmacies — $61 for 90 pills. The drug coupon was the best domestic option, bringing the price for 90 pills to $147, but this was only at one particular pharmacy. If you choose to use a coupon or discount card, make sure to check prices at all pharmacies in your area, as they will often be different. View our pricing table below.
Savings on 90 Pills of Diovan HCT (160/12.5 mg)
Program
Price
Savings over Local Pharmacy
Percent savings
U.S. Local Pharmacy
$515.00
—
—
Discount Card Option
$433.79
$81.21
16%
Discount Coupon Option
$432.94
$82.06
16%
U.S. Online Pharmacy
$430.31
$84.69
16%
International Online Pharmacy
$63.00*
$452.00
88%
Local pharmacy in New York City, U.S. online international pharmacy found at Healthwarehouse.com International Online Pharmacy price as found on PharmacyChecker.com, discount card used found on RxCut.com, coupon found on Goodrx.com. Prices collected 2/19/2013.
*Price Calculated from 84 pills
Savings on 90 Pills of Valsartan Hydrochlorothiazide(160/12.5 mg)
Program
Price
Savings over Local Pharmacy
Percent savings
U.S. Local Pharmacy
$369.99
—
—
Discount Card Option
$340.74
$29.25
8%
Discount Coupon Option
$147.74
$222.25
60%
U.S. Online Pharmacy
$289.00
$80.99
22%
International Online Pharmacy
$61.00
$308.99
84%%
Local pharmacy in New York City, U.S. online international pharmacy found at Healthwarehouse.com International Online Pharmacy price as found on PharmacyChecker.com, discount card used found on RxCut.com, coupon found on Goodrx.com. Prices collected 2/19/2013.
A report on drug safety published today by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) identifies important threats to the public health from falsified and substandard drugs but seems to ignore the facts about online pharmacy safety and savings. IOM’s report, “Countering the Problems of Falsified and Substandard Drugs,” which is funded by the FDA, wrongly concludes: “Trustworthy, accredited online drug stores do not sell medicine more cheaply than any other registered pharmacy would. Steep online discounts attract customers, but come from illegitimate vendors.” This conclusion is contradicted by a study in the References section of IOM’s report. That study is called “Unveiling the Mystery of Online Pharmacies: An Audit Study” and it’s published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The NBER study is clear that Americans achieve safety and huge savings when buying genuine medication ordered online from registerednon-U.S.pharmacies approved by PharmacyChecker.com. Therefore, trustworthy online pharmacies, in fact, do offer much lower drug prices; they are, however, not based in the United States.
As we see it, the IOM’s report reflects the position of its funding source, the FDA, when it comes to online pharmacies. We believe that the FDA essentially allows but prefers to ignore safe personal drug importation in its consumer awareness campaigns. Tens of millions of Americans forgo taking medication each year due to high domestic prescription costs, according to the Commonwealth Fund. It’s common sense that discouraging consumers from buying more affordable and safe medication online just because the pharmacy is outside the country will lead to fewer Americans getting the medications they need. That’s because, as a CVS/Caremark study shows, high medication costs are the number one reason Americans skip their meds.
Like the FDA, the IOM report recommends that Americans only use online pharmacies approved by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy’s Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program. The main safety criteria for a VIPPS-approved online pharmacy are that its dispensing pharmacies are licensed, inspected by their governing regulatory authorities, and require prescriptions. PharmacyChecker.com-approved online pharmacies meet those standards, which are verified for U.S. or qualified foreign pharmacies. VIPPS-approved online pharmacies cannot help Americans afford needed prescribed medication on many brand name drugs because their prices are much higher than licensed non-U.S. pharmacies. Furthermore, the NABP’s Internet pharmacy programs receive funding from pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer, who don’t want Americans buying their medication at lower foreign prices, which could make one question NABP’s independence…
A report this morning on CBS News mentions PharmacyChecker.com as one of the most useful websites for people looking for online pharmacies and warns consumers to be careful of sites not certified by a third party.
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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 