quote:
Hilliary Clinton noted that if NY pharmacies could simply send a driver across the boarder into Canada and buy drugs at retail from Canadian Pharmacies, they would save significantly over wholesale US costs. Currently such international purchase is against the law. Sen. Clinton proposed the law be changed. Big Pharma shut the effort down

So, you're proposing completely deregulating prescriptions. If "FedEx" is the importer, then there's no regulations on drugs in the US. I'm not sure that's the situation you want. If it is, I can get on board. The tort lawyers will be furious, though.

There are price discrepancies all over the world with relation to every product. Pharmaceuticals are no exception. Other countries do allow reimportation with limited cost cutting success demonstrated.

And there's safety issues as well.
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Posted by NC_Tigah

Carolinas

Member since Sep 2003

124186 posts

Posted on 12/17/14 at 7:18 am to the808bass

quote:
So, you're proposing completely deregulating prescriptions.

Not really. I'd certainly back safe OTC sales. But that could be a slippery slope.
E.g., the "simple conjunctivitis" example cited earlier. Very appropriate treatment for some forms of conjunctivitis can make other forms far worse.

So I am proposing exactly what I said. US retail outlets be able to purchase drugs from international wholesalers/retailers, and that insurance be required to reimburse patients for filling their prescriptions from the same sources.

Total deregulation might lead to nonequivalent and/or scam drugs purchased from dubious outlets. So we'd need some sort of "approved" list ensuring quality products for patients.

But to give an example, Celebrex 200 mg sells at US discount pharmacies for $5.81/pill vs Canadian source retail pricing at 85¢/pill --- nearly a 7-fold difference. That is a ridiculous differential.

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