A good warning from FDA about dangers of buying drugs online

bump before its buried

Jim,

My problem is that I wouldn't have any problem "skirting" things to buy online and save money. My problem is paranoria. I don't worry about the drugs I buy at CVS or elsewhere, because I know they are drugs well tested and approved by the FDA. The chances of buying diluted or unpure drugs or even wrong drugs are so incredibly rare, that I have peace of mind. I just woudln't have the trust factor to buy online or out of the country. These are choices and risks each of us have to take.

Plus, with my Medicare drug plan, my drug costs are so low as it is for all that I take, lowest I have ever had to pay, so my monthly drug costs are very low and not a burden to our budget and income

david

I have every bit as much faith in the integrity of the Canadian drug system as in the FDA and would not hesitate a second to order prescription medications from reputable Canadian pharmacies if I could save a lot of money by doing so.

The FDA has many roles, and some of them are good. However, it also serves the financial interest of drug companies by restricting the right of Americans to import prescription medications from Canada, in spite of the fact that medications manufactured and/or distributed in Canada meet or surpass quality control guidelines set by the FDA.

At the present moment it is technically not legal to import prescription medications from Canada, but U.S. custom officials allow it to happen. Given the controversy enforcement causes, especially in states bordering on Canada, federal custom officials exercise "enforcement discretion" in dealing with prescription drugs imported into the US. This also applies to prescription drugs imported from countries other than Canada. In general you can buy prescriptions drugs without fear that they will be seized going through US Customs.

San Carlos

Rather this thread not go into these "political" slants, we all know what happens when that happens.

There are some "online" pharmacies that have been in business for many years and sell drugs widely accepted in their home countries, made by reputable drug companies..Few problems have been reported with these drugs..

If the FDA would back up their claims of counterfeit, ineffective drugs, dangerous drugs, contaminated drugs, they should lay them out there, identify the source, identify the online pharmacy that sold them...But, no, just vague accusations with a lot of maybe's, might's, possibly's that seem aimed at protecting the domestic drug manufacturers more than anything else..

Chemicals will ultimately allow or disallow our survival in this battle with our beast. Fairwind's contention cuts to the heart of the issue. The FDA has an agenda and so do we. Sometimes our best interests coincide .. sometimes we have to trust our gut.

Jim

Perhaps you are missing the point of the responders David. Many of us do not share your confidence in the integrity of the FDA. Many of us do not view it as a safety net. We view it as a spiderweb. We can disagree on this as brothers often will. When it comes to the main focus of this forum we will always stand together as one. It's way past my bedtime. Have a great Sunday my friends.

Jim

golf, and that is pefectly fine. not even insinuating that a person is unwise to do so. money talks with most people. risks, like so many things, are personal choices. you seem to be ok with the risk, you are saving money, and the product is working.

but, and there is always a but, what if something went terribly wrong, and you consumed a tainted pill? you would have no legal remedy, among other things. that is one of the parts that bother me.

that's one reason i am the way i am about supplements. for the most part, they are unregulated by the fda or anyone else. how do people really know what they are putting in their mouths? were the ingredients pure and free from harm? under what conditions were they made? etc.

i just want to make it clear to any reader of this thread. i am not suggesting or telling anyone what to do or not to do. and its not a right or wrong situation. the intent was to get people to think about it.

david

David,

First, let's understand that my comments are meant to apply only to prescription medications from Canada, not to other countries like Mexico and Thailand. In Canada prescription medications are controlled by a system that has a much overall integrity as the FDA. Literally millions of prescriptions have been filled by Americans over the past two decades from Canadian pharmacists, and the point to mention in response to the scare mongering tactics of the FDA is that nothing has gone terribly wrong. I am sure mistakes have been made, as they are made in the US. But if you deal with a reputable pharmacy there should be no greater risk in buying prescription medications from Canada than buying them at the CVS.

I have been purchasing insulin for a diabetic cat for several years from a Canadian pharmacy. They pack it carefully in ice and the vials are identical to the ones I would purchase in the US, and both produced in the same place, Isatanbul, Turkey. The only difference is that the cost to me in the US is about $50 per vial, from Canada the cost is less than $15 per vial. My cat is healthy with his two daily injections, and I am saving lots of money.

There are risks associated with every thing we do. My wife has a skin disease which makes her highly sensitive to UV light, so she rides a bicycle before the sun comes up, or after it has gone down. My own opinion about this is that the safety risk is greater than the health benefit gained by exercise. But she has the right to make her own choices.

So my opinion, in the absence of any significant evidence of risk associated with purchasing prescription medications from Canada, is that the FDA, and the corrupt politicians who support the agenda of the big drug companies, should get the hell out of our way.

I am glad you started the thread because it did give me an opportunity to think about the issue, and express my opinion.

San Carlos

san carlos, aside from the fact, that we are personal friends in r/l, i totally respect your view and opinion on the subject. i don't think i would have any beef with buying from canada if i really needed to, but i think in the bigger scope of the issue, was the concern of buying truly overseas, i.e. india and some of the other drug producing countries.

i think you are doing the right thing for you and your wife.

f8 - havent seen you post in a while, but here you are with a degratory remark, with nothing positive to say, one way or the other, and you certainly aren't contributing to the topic of the thread. so why bother to post, if you aren't contributing one way or the other? i think your remark speaks volumes of your intent

david

I see those who think the Ameerican pharmaceutical companies are greedily sucking money from the American consumer are well represented in these comments.

I don't disagree that ED drugs are priced beyond the reach of most people who need to use them on a regular basis, but I can't forget that American companies have to absorb all the costs of R&D, all the costs of the required studies, all the costs of promoting the new drug, all the costs of setting aside money to deal with inevitable lawsuits (have you watched daytime TV where it seems every other commercial is for a personal injury law firm inviting viewers to use their services to extract money from various pharmaceutical companies?).  Can anyone name a current ED drug that was developed by a Canadian or Indian pharmaeutical company? 

Then, along comes a foreign drug company that reverse engineers the drug, with no respect for US patent laws, intellectual property considerations, or anything else that we as American supposedly hold dear.  What a sweet deal for them.

I understand our dilemma very well.  Our uros are telling us we need these drugs for rehab, but they're expensive and most of us can't afford them.  The solution, it seems to me, is to press Congress to force the insurance companies to stop considering these ED meds as "recreational" in nature.  When ordered by a specialist for rehab after cancer surgery, they should be covered as any other drug so that they become affordable.

I personally don't fault our American pharmaceutical companies.  I fault our medical insurance companies for failure to properly categorize these meds and for failure to cover them appropriately for those of for whom they're medically necessary.

 

"Then, along comes a foreign drug company that reverse engineers the drug, with no respect for US patent laws, intellectual property considerations, or anything else that we as American supposedly hold dear. What a sweet deal for them."

No need to be concerned about the plight of the big drug companies, American or foreign. They will put enough money into the hands of the politicians to protect their financial interests.

San Carlos