By: Kevin Tibbles
CROSSING THE BORDER FOR MEDICATION
(in part)
March 1 — In Southern California many Americans get their
prescriptions filled in Mexico because many drugs are cheaper there.
Now the Internet is helping other Americans do the same thing in
Canada. But are there risks?
It’s not your typical bus trip for a group of retirees from
Tucson, Arizona. They are crossing the border to Nogales, Mexico,
on what they jokingly call a “drug run,” to a pharmacy,
buying prescription drugs at a fraction of the price back in the
United States.
But now there is another route to cheap medication: online. In Minneapolis,
Steve Arundel doesn't leave his living room, buying over the Internet
from Canada medication he used to pay $350 for every month. At a
Canadian Pharmacy, that price is slashed in half. “The savings
for one year is probably in excess of $2,000,” says Arundel.
Why is medication so much cheaper in Canada? It’s because
the government there limits what drug companies can charge. In the
U.S. they charge what the market will bear. Canadian pharmacies
with Web sites can sell the same pills to Americans at up to 90
percent less.
Just how much can you save? Stateside, a 90-day supply of the arthritis
drug Celebrex sells for $197. In Canada, the same drug is $90. Lipitor,
for high cholesterol is $241 in the U.S., $132 in Canada, and Tamoxifen,
a breast cancer treatment is $287 in the U.S., only $28 in Canada.
Some doctors are even helping seniors get cheap medication, faxing
prescriptions to Canada. Vermont’s United Health Alliance
even supplies the order forms. It’s a grassroots effort, with
some doctors ignoring U.S. law, unwilling to make their patients
wait for lower drug costs.
“They can’t wait, they can’t wait,” says
Dr. Elizabeth Wenner, of the United Health Alliance. “They
can die though. And I’m not gonna sit around and think that
I waited or watched. I will do something to make a difference.”
It’s against the law to import drugs of any kind into this
country. But in this case, the FDA is not prosecuting. Instead it
is simply warning buyers to beware.
“You don’t know whether the country from which the drug
is coming from has controls in place to ensure the product is safe,”
says Peggy Dotzel of the FDA.
But consumers like Steve Arundel say that until prices come down,
he’ll buy Canadian. And he has this prescription for U.S.
drug makers:
“Quit digging your hand so deep in the cookie jar,”
says Arundel.
