The Pradaxa I buy from NorthWest Pharmacy in Canada costs me about $750 for a years supply. I'd been buying from Kroger Pharm for about $2,800 per year....same drug, same packaging and same manufacturer. I must be missing something here I guess.

quote:

Originally posted by Marc1911:
I'm not sure where to begin, except to say that I would never purchase prescription drugs over the internet from an online "Canadian" or other non-USA pharmacy unless I visited their brick and mortar store in Canada first.

The Canadian government (Health Canada) itself states that 74% of purported Canadian pharmacies selling prescription drugs online are located outside Canada and have zero regulatory oversight. The legitimate pharmacies should display an NAPRA certificate that you can verify.

A 4 week customs study from about 10 years ago showed that 81% of the drugs intercepted coming into the US from "Canadian" and other pharmacies were counterfeit, adulterated, or sub/super therapeutic. One example was "viagra" from India that consisted of compressed sawdust that was then painted with blue house paint.

Even if the drug is authentic many of them are not stored or shipped appropriately, particularly those drugs that require refrigeration of special handling.

Prior to my retirement I was involved in the regulation of pharmaceuticals and am aware of 5 deaths that were attributed to medications obtained from "pharmacies" outside the US.

Is it really worth saving a few bucks? Not to me.

A casual google search for counterfeit canadian pharmacies, counterfeit prescription drugs or similar will give you lots to think about.

Well we know who works for the RX. Maybe a Pharm D grad

I am a retired pharmacist who spent 13 years of my career in the regulatory field responding to patient complaints and attempting to keep consumers safe. I have never worked for a Phrma company and am not an apologist for them.

My experiences are real and my opinion comes from seeing first hand what can happen to people buying their pharmaceuticals from unknown sources. If you think people in other countries like India, Pakistan or China are unwilling to sell counterfeit and adulterated drugs through the internet you are wrong. It's pretty easy to copy and print packaging, labels, etc. and if you can make $500 to $1000 a package selling it over the internet - that's a big incentive.

There is a significant amount of evidence of substandard and counterfeit drugs being sold by entities in other countries pretending to be in Canada. It's big money.

If you want to ignore me that's fine, but I have earned this opinion through 44 years of experience and I would not buy drugs over the internet from a Canadian Pharmacy unless I could visit their brick and mortar store first and be assured that any prescriptions being mailed to you are coming from that location.

Honest question. Who and where could you go to actually test the medication for its authenticity? Is it an elaborate process in a lab??

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That's a great question.

If you could find a lab to can do both the qualitative and quantitative analysis I suspect the price would be prohibitive. There are methods that some manufacturers of high priced drugs use to show authenticity (holograms in strange locations on the label, etc.) but these aren't universal and aren't generally shared outside the distribution channel.

The safest bet is to know who you are buying from. Hence my comment about visiting the Canadian brick and mortar. If you can't travel to Canada maybe you can find someone who lives nearby and mail the script to them to make sure it doesn't get routed out of country??

Anything being mailed from China, India, Pakistan etc. would be a no-no for me. While China and India do manufacture the majority of the pharmaceutical raw materials in the world the regulatory oversite just isn't there.

If someone is intent on buying something from out of the USA over the internet your best option is to let your physician know that you are doing so so the two of you can monitor your progress. Unusual health changes after switching from a USA pharmacy to an internet purchase should result in checking the new medication as the first step.

Finally, if it truly is a food or medicine decision that is driving you to the internet, check with your physician or pharmacist. Almost every brand name pharmaceutical company has patient assistance programs that can get the patient cost down to a reasonable level.

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Thank you for answering my question.

Another datapoint for consideration: I used an Oceania-based pharm for many years. It was recommended in online forums for being reputable. All the meds I got from them were indeed legit. The prices are often amazing, and you don't need a prescription.

It's been a while since I ordered from them, but it looks like they're still up and running. Maybe worth a try.

United Pharmacies