Canadians Are Doing Big Business Filling U.S. Prescriptions
from the keep-the-cheap-drugs-coming dept
Welcome to the world of drug arbitrage. Thanks to regulations in Canada, many prescription medications there are significantly cheaper than they are in insurance-company-price-hiked American pharmacies. As anyone with any business sense realizes, different prices for the same product is an opportunity for arbitrage, and some Canadian are cashing in. This article looks at the growing business of Canadian pharmacies taking online orders for US patients. Since local laws require a Canadian physician to write the prescription, they have Canadian doctors on staff who simply rewrite the American doctor's prescription. Meanwhile, the American drug companies are (to put it mildly) not happy about this. They're threatening to stop supplying drugs to Canadian companies that resell them into the US.
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Not what it seems
1. Insurance companies pressure pharmaceuticals to lower prices, not raise them.
2. Government subsidies fund the lower prices. In effect, Americans are stealing money from the Canadian health care system, and this is sure to eventually create a backlash.
3. Unscrupulous pharmacists in Canada will treat this as an opportunity to prescribe expired, diluted, or generic drugs.
4. Depending on the drug prescribed, patients could be subject to arrest in the US. Some drugs allowed in Canada are not allowed here.
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Why not DMCA, everyone else is?
Seems pretty clear cut to me...why should the intellectual property and retail companies have all the fun?
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Exactly What it Seems
1. Insurance companies pressure pharmaceuticals to lower prices, not raise them.
1a. What is this supposed to mean? Insurance companies don't pressure pharmaceuticals, period. Pharmaceuticals set their prices because they're the only ones making the drug needed. Doctors are /occasionally/ pressured by insurance companies to perscribe generic drugs, but not nearly to the degree they are bribed (yes, bribed) by pharmaceutical companies. That's why we have high drug prices, or haven't you noticed? The reason drug prices are high here is because they can be, the US Drug Market is an artifically closed system. Allowing people to shop in Canada is like allowing you to go down the street for cheaper gas. Once you open a market, economic forces stabilize the prices. They're inflated here because a) people want to live, and b) they have no other choice but to buy. If someone told you that you needed PillX to live, but could only buy it at some absurd price, you'd still buy it. And if your insurance company is footing the bill, you're even MORE likely to adhere to the doctor's advice.
2. Government subsidies fund the lower prices. In effect, Americans are stealing money from the Canadian health care system, and this is sure to eventually create a backlash.
2a. I can only assume the implication here is that "government" means "Canadian government". While this might make sense, drugs sold for export in Canada are /not/ subsidised. If they were, they'd be free, like in any country with national healthcare. The fact that they cost anything means the Canadian government ISN'T paying for them.
3. Unscrupulous pharmacists in Canada will treat this as an opportunity to prescribe expired, diluted, or generic drugs.
3.a Selling expired, diluted, or (GASP!) generic drugs in Canada is just as illegal and heavily enforced as in the US. Further, the joys of a free market are that if some retailers start doing this dishonestly, they're fairly likely to get caught. Sure, a little bit of intelligence on the buyer's part is necessary (a dangerous assumption to make, I realize) but just like there are companies and govermnet agencies in this country that ensure business are being honest in their products, they have them in Canada too. Really. And if it isn't worth the risk to you, go pay significantly more for the EXACT SAME DRUGS at your local Walgreens.
4. Depending on the drug prescribed, patients could be subject to arrest in the US. Some drugs allowed in Canada are not allowed here.
4a. As the article stipulates, these companies simply re-write the perscriptions already given by American doctors. They won't ship without a perscription, and perscribing medication (in Canada) based on a web order is malpractice and/or medical ethics suit waiting to happen. If a US doctor perscribes drugs illegal in the US, AND the Canadian company illegally ships them TO the US, you MIGHT have someone who got a drug. But if it made it all the way to the person, who'd know? Further more, if a Canadian company was shipping in illegal drugs, you can BET the DEA would be on them very quickly (rather than arresting people for recieving a bottle or two every few months).
So really, all the reasons "Dorpus" lists are about as useful as...well...a Constitution in the Supreme Court. Pharmaceutical companies in the US have enjoyed free-reign on pricing through creative lobying and strong litigation. Generic drugs are just as good as Name-brand ones (lets face it, a molecule is a molecule), and Canadian drug manufacturers aren't allowed to wildly inflate their prices, since up until recently their only customer was the Canadian governmet.
Ultimately, though, this begs the question: Why ARE our prices so high? I mean, there are some pretty cute numbers that point to how expensive it is to get a drug approved in the US, yet we have just as many drug recalls as Canada and the UK, were perscription drugs are much cheaper. It seems that the prices are wildly inflated...because like a good drug dealer, the Pharmaceutical companies have convinced a bunch of yokels that getting your drugs from anyone else is /dangerous/ and so you should pay a little extra (3-20x as much, or more) to be sure you're safe. And if you can't? You don't deserve to live.
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generic product that contains codeine
Thank you.
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