Wanted: Pharmacist advice USA

[Arthur]

I'm about to visit the USA and would like to talk with a USA pharmacist first. Is there one on the forum please?

[starxplor]

Given the premise of the question, someone not from the US visiting the US, I have to wonder if a pharmacist is what you really want. If you are going to need a prescription, you should have your prescribing physician talk to a physician in the US. If you just need an already prescribed medication refilled, then a pharmacist is the place to look for rules on accepting out of country orders (unlikely to be accepted directly).

 

If you have a specific question for a pharmacist, I can ask the pharmacists in the hospital I work in on Tuesday morning (EDT) after my night shift.

 

Feel free to message me directly on here.

[taiwanluthiers]

Honestly you are better off having your prescription filled where you're from. Drug prices in the US is very high because they think Americans can afford to pay more for it. The same drugs almost always cost much less elsewhere.

 

Also, depending on how long you're going to be here you can just bring however much medications you need and have your prescription with you in case there is any questions at customs.

[OldMarine]

American drug prices are high because we subsidize the socialist countries by paying the difference between loss and profit to the drug companies. Socialized medicine sets prices instead of the market and someone has to pay the piper since pharma companies aren't a charity. Fly in through Canada and find a pharmacy there so you can have your scrips filled at the lower price or come through Mexico and get anything you want at the corner drug store pretty much without a scrip.

[Arthur]

That's why I LOVE the UK NHS! Get the scrip from a doctor and the pharmacist will accept that as authority to supply AND most of the cost of the items.

[OldMarine]

I was working in Canada for several months a few years ago and had to get my respiratory and allergy meds there. I got spoiled by paying half the cost I did here in the US. That's when I read up on it and found out the US is subsidizing the failing socialized medical systems with the sweat of our brow. Womb t tomb works only with slaves who can't complain. I'll be damned if a bureaucrat will tell me what I can do to save the life of myself or a loved one because of a formula some pencil-necked little accountant came up with.

Medical tourism is big business here for a reason: People don't want to die while waiting for some faceless pogue in the government bowels to finally spit out an approval or worse yet deny it.

Edited August 26, 2017 by OldMarine

[Baldor]

Sorry, but I think you are wrong. Being a "free market", you in US are paying what the vendors think the market can bear, no one cent more, no one cent less. Meds being what they are, customers are ready to bear a lot when in need.

 

Also, companies being companies, if they can't have a positive benefit in one market ("socialist countries"), they simply withdraw from that market. They don't withdraw, they sell with benefits to the socialist healthcare system, for what they know the system can bear, and then, we socialist taxpayers subsidise the meds for the final user. I pay for may meds, say, 1 cent at the pharmacy, and another 10 cents trough taxes, so the vendor gets 11 cents. If your doctor thinks you need something not subsidised by the public healthcare system, no problem, you pay full price, as you will pay in US. If you need some procedure not covered by the public healthcare system, no problem, you pay full price in the private system

 

Medical tourism is also a big thing in Spain. Our heavily socialised medicine attract a lot of people from other countries with less socialised medicine.

 

I'm not advocating for one system or the other, just addressing some misconceptions about what "socialised healthcare" is.

[bobd]

"if they can't have a positive benefit in one market ("socialist countries"), they simply withdraw from that market"

 

The big clinker in that argument is the existence of rip-off compounders in places that do not respect intellectual property rights, and make the same or analagous drugs without paying for the right to do so. It costs the world to get a drug approved for sale in the US, so the companies that do so try to recoup their costs by pricing the drugs accordingly. Drugs sold in Pat's "socialist" countries are the result of theft from the (mostly American) companies that developed the drug.

Your socialized medicine system is supported in part by us dumb Americans who have to support the rest of your worthless asses.

Rant off.

Bob

[Arthur]

Whole thread unrelated to the OP. Please delete.

[Baldor]

You are referring to countries like India and Brazil, Bobd. I was talking about Europe and Canada, as I think OldMarine was doing. There is no market for big pharma in India or Brazil regardless intellectual property is respected or not, their citizens can not pay full price.

 

Look at the situation in countries that respect intellectual property as collective bargaining,or big insurance company making a deal for bulk purchases (Socialised medicine is a very big insurance company, and you always have the option, if you like, to get your meds without the insurance subsidy). The price is the one agreed between seller and buyer, and both can choose to not close the deal if it's not profitable.

 

It's the same as with entertainment, and the reason we have DVD zones. The price of the goods it's not related to what they cost to produce (research included), but to at what point you will maximise profit in a determined market.

[AllisterF]

 

 

The big clinker in that argument is the existence of rip-off compounders in places that do not respect intellectual property rights, and make the same or analagous drugs without paying for the right to do so.

 

I would like to correct this, IP rights vary by country and foreign IP rights are rarely enforceable outside the country of origin... IP rights are not automatically honored and upheld in another country, drug companies have to apply for IP rights in multiple countries worldwide to have them enforced in that country generally... That said, a vast majority of the 'unlicensed' generic drugs are made in countries like India, Iran and Pakistan where the IP rights vary quite differently then they do in countries like the US... In the US a drug company gets IP rights on the drugs specific chemical formula and bans anyone from releasing a generic drug with the same formula, in countries like India for example, pre-2005 that is not how IP rights were issued for drugs they were issued based on the process used to create the specific chemical formula not the formula itself... That said if an Indian pharmaceutical company had replicated a drugs specific chemical formula by using another entirely different process it's wasn't considered stealing, illegal or an infringement upon the original drug, it was just considered a legit alternative generic drug there... One could argue all day that this is still 'theft' but under the laws of that country it was/is not... India revised it's drug patent laws in 2005 but is now reluctant to actually issue patents on many drugs, due to the fact they built an entire global industry on generic drugs... Because of varying global IP laws, that allow pharma companies in some places to release 'legal' generics without any royalty or licensing, the global big pharma companies generally negotiate VERY low cost licensing rights to many foreign pharma companies, allowing those companies to sell the same exact drugs including the brand name for pennies on the dollar as an alternative manufacturing location, while only paying chump change to license the drug rights and name... The big pharma is happy to make a few pennies on licensing over getting nothing if the foreign pharma company just makes an 'unlicensed' generic instead...

 

Plus regulations on scripting varies all over the place, besides a limited number of 'tame' over the counter drugs in the US, pretty much everything requires a doctors visit and script, in many countries this isn't the case... Combine that with the fact that earning about $33K makes you a global one percenter, people in a vast majority of the world would never be able to afford even half of the regulated drugs without huge subsidies or huge price cuts in their countries, thus drug companies will milk the more wealthy base for everything they can to subsidize the rest...

 

In the end it's something I'm conflicted on, my wife at one point worked for a big Japanese pharma company, thus I know full well the time and money these companies invest in that 1 in 1000 drug that actually makes it to market and becomes profitable... These companies have to re-coup that money somewhere if they are to stay in business and create new drugs... On the other hand when 'necessary' drugs are priced out of the hands of people that need them, it irks me to no end as well... My wife and I both go without prescription drugs that would make our quality of life better because the cost is prohibitive, so it hits home heavily...

 

That said to the OP if you are going to be traveling to the US and need meds, you can legally bring in a 90 day supply with proper declaration paperwork/script, they probably won't even question you for the documents but have them ready just in case... If you are going to be in the US for longer then that, you should have your doctors contact a US doctor to issue you a US script for the drug, then you can get it filled in the US, and/or technically import a new 90 day supply from your home country, if customs does intercept your shipment they will almost always release it upon presentation of a valid US script...

Edited August 28, 2017 by AllisterF