RX Depot, which I understand has several offices throughout the U.S. was ordered by the FDA through court orders to shut down its office in Tulsa, OK.
It is a business which takes prescriptions from local doctors and obtains them from Canadian sources. Customers were saving tons of money. Especially the elderly. The FDA said the drugs had not been tested and proven safe (although they are the same drugs that can be purchased here for lots more)
Owner said he was going to continue staying open until the government sent someone to shut him down. the attention that he's getting has brought more customers to him.
Sadie5 Actually it is a big business here in Canada via mail -order.
Most of the businesses are based in Central Canada (Winnipeg) and they do a booming business, shipping prescription drugs to the U.S.
It has come to the point where the drug manufacturers have threatened to stop selling to the Canadian firms, because of the complaints from the U.S. distributors.
yes xjwb12, the tv station covering this story brought out that individuals can order drug from Canada, obtain a 90 day supply and that is all legal.
I believe RX Depot get customers that aren't familiar with the internet or how to go about ordering the drugs from Canada. they're a middle man that charges a small fee to get people connected. Good service for the elderly so they don't have to choose between food and meds.
I don't understand why there is such a price difference for the same drugs between the two countries.
I don't understand why there is such a price difference for the same drugs between the two countries.
Greed. Why do generics cost less than name-brands for the same active ingredient?
I realize that a big drug company has costs for research and development into the millions and billions and when they finally come up with something that works, they're going to charge more for it than it costs to make so that they can recoup the costs for developing it and recoup costs on all the money that went into developing drugs that didn't make it. Do US copyright laws on drugs apply to Canada? Did Canada just duplicate the formula and, having no R&D debt can make it cheaply? Don't know. But I would guess there is still some price gouging from US companies.
Since the republicans are in control here, you can be sure the interests of big rich US companies will prevail over the poor old senior citizens trying to survive on a pension.
When I lost my health benefits I had trouble affording my medication. I never gave it a thought before, just paid the co-pay at the drugstore. So I called around all the drug stores in my area to get prices and they varied by as much as $17 a month for the medication. WTF????
So now I go through a Canadian RX company I found online/mail order. I save 55% buying from them. Funny thing is, I got the info from my physician - she agrees the drug companies are a racket in the U.S.
Pharmacies have what they call a 'dispensing' fee. It varies from store to store, and is added on top of the price of your drugs. This can cause a surprising spread in the prices of medications.
As for those who are worried about whether our medications are 'as good as the American ones', we have very strict regulations here in Canada. In fact, at times, we have waited several years after the FDA has given approval to obtain meds in Canada because of our regulatory process. A friend of mine takes a medication that is not even available in Canada - he has to go to the US to buy it cause it's not approved here.
