by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | May 17, 2011 | Online Pharmacies, Personal Drug Importation
A new post on RxRights.org explains how the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP)’s Internet Drug Outlet Identification Program wrongly misleads consumers and the media by tagging all non-U.S. online pharmacies that sell to Americans as “rogue.” Essentially, that program’s list includes dangerous rogue online pharmacies along with reputable online pharmacies that meet high standards of safety but are simply not based in the United States. American consumers should expect more from pharmacy regulatory authorities and deserve to be properly informed. By adding properly verified international online pharmacies to the list, NABP scares Americans away from safe and affordable sources of medication. RxRight.org alerts the public that NABP’s program was sponsored with a grant from the drug giant Pfizer.
The post also deconstructs the ridiculous notion that only “FDA-approved” drugs are safe. It explains that the same exact drug purchased from a Canadian pharmacy (or any non-U.S. pharmacy) that is sold in the United States is “Not FDA-approved.” How can that be if it’s the same drug? There are many reasons, but one primary reason is labeling. FDA-approved drugs include approval of the drug’s specific labeling. That means that virtually all drugs sold in Canada that are compositionally identical to those sold in the United States are not “FDA-approved” because their labeling is different (such as including information in French and English), but of course they are equally as safe.
PharmacyChecker.com applauds RxRights.org for exposing misinformation campaigns sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry meant to scare Americans away from safe and affordable online pharmacies, wrongly inform the media, and shape our nation’s laws and regulations.
Tagged with: Canada, Canadian pharmacies, drugs from canada, FDA-approved, National Associations of Boards of Pharmacy, Not FDA-approved, Online Pharmacies, Pfizer, rogue pharmacies, RxRights.org, United States
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | May 3, 2011 | Drug Importation, Saving Money on Prescription Drugs
As the retrial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges commences, we’d like to re-direct your attention to the personal drug importation program he championed. Had that program received better backing from our politicians, fewer Americans would have gone without needed medications.
In October of 2004, a personal drug importation program called I-Save Rx was launched under the leadership of Blagojevich and then Congressman Rahm Immanuel. The lead pharmacist responsible for the program’s development was Ram Kamath, PharmD, now Director of Pharmacy Policy and International Verifications for PharmacyChecker.com. I-Save Rx showed state residents how to access affordable medication from approved pharmacies in Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Within just seven months, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas and Vermont had joined the initiative, allowing their residents to participate as well.
Unfortunately, after its approval, the government did not market the I-Save Rx program and it suffered due a lack of political will. But I-Save Rx’s creation proved that government could, without much difficulty, create a program to facilitate the purchase of affordable medication from Canada and other countries. In fact, our current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, was governor of Kansas when she approved the program for use by her state’s residents. It should speak volumes that the administration official now tasked by President Obama with “protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves” approved of a personal drug importation program and made it available to the residents of Kansas. (more…)
Tagged with: Americans, Blagojevich, Canada, Dr. Ram Kamath, Drug Importation, Health Secretary, I-Save RX, Ireland, Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, Missouri, President Obama, public health, Rahm Immanuel, Retrial, United Kingdom, United States, Vermont, Wisconsin
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Apr 15, 2011 | Drug Prices
Last month the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a no contest grant to be awarded to the National Consumers League (NCL) to examine the problem of prescription adherence. The problem is one we discuss almost every week on this blog: Americans are not taking their prescribed medication. Therefore, when we came across an FDA initiative aimed at tackling the problem we were intrigued.
In the FDA announcement we expected to find mention of some of the known causes for Americans not taking their prescribed medications, such as cost, which has previously been proven as the number one reason Americans skip prescriptions. Amazingly, there was not one mention of drug prices or cost in the announcement. In choosing NCL as the recipient of the $40,000 grant it appeared that FDA might be on the right track After all, NCL knows from its own commissioned study that drug prices are the main reason Americans don’t take their medications. NCL has brought together “stakeholders” from government, non-profit organizations and the private sector. This sounds like a good idea. (more…)
Tagged with: AARP, Canada, Drug Prices, FDA, National Consumer's League, National Medication Adherence Campaign, prescription adherence, prescriptions
