Re: Canadian Pharmacies?

[Guest guest]

Hi again,

I have ordered medicines from Canada for years. Most Canadian mail-order

pharmacies have their own doctor, who has prescribing privileges in Canada,

which your American doctor does not. The Canadian doctor needs your medical

history and the prescription from your doctor. Most mail-order pharmacies have a

new-customer sign-up form that says what medical info is needed. Those will also

tell you what payment forms they take - credit or debit cards are best; checks,

almost always no, and they may wait until it has cleared before they ship your

order. And don't mail money, unless it's a trackable way like certified (return

receipt), FedEx, etc.

They cannot fill prescriptions for controlled substances - prescription

painkillers, benzodiazepenes (e.g. Xanax), androgens (e.g. testosterone). The

basic rule of thumb is, if your pharmacy requires a written prescription, it's a

controlled substance. Non-controlled substances prescriptions can be phoned or

faxed in.

Insurance companies will not cover drugs from Canada. And there is a very slight

chance that it may be intercepted by the feds, since it is unclear at this time

whether this is strictly legal. The FDA says no (Canadian drugs often have

different packaging, which does not have the FDA-required language for patient

insert, label and packaging [i used to work for a biopharmaceutical drug

company, and had to learn all this stuff]); but in most cases the drug inside is

the same, made on the same assembly line as the American drug. And if not, the

Canadian version of the FDA is about as strict as the American, so the drugs are

safe and effective. The patient's rights groups say yes, as it is up to the

patient and his/her doctor to determine treatment and not the FDA.

Not incidentally, if the FDA position is fully adopted, there will not be any

compounded medications available. That means no bio-identical hormone treatment,

no Amphotericin nasal spray (repeated sinus infections are frequently both

bacterial and fungal (over 80% of those with 5+ infections) - if yours doesn't

clear with just antibiotics, ask your doc for an antifungal also. This has been

in the med literature for years, or decades even, but is not taught at med

school and there are no drugs approved for treating fungal sinus infections, so

a pharma rep can't talk about it, or even pass out a published medical study

that says anything about it [thank you, big brother FDA]).

I was getting an injectable drug from Canada. In that case, it could vary in how

it was packaged. American versions were 1 mL vials with a rubber septum; from

Canada I got both 1 and 2 mL glass vials (break at the scored line), and 10 mL

and 30 mL bottles with a septum. It was the same stuff, just packaged

differently. Obviously, with a glass vial, you can't use it more than once.

Jerry

[Guest guest]

Let me ask my father if he remembers where he used to order my step-mothers

expensive cancer medication from in Canada....

IT was a legit place...not the least expensive out there---BUT, it was a

legitimate site and much less expensive than here....

If you can't CALL them--that indicates a problem....some of these sites have no

phone number--everything is done on-line.

Lynn