The story of the Philly-native Lyn Stein, 71, is another example that U.S. healthcare system is far from perfection. The elderly lady has to take medical preparations for her fibromyalgia treatment on a regular basis and recently one of the life-supporting medications, Strattera, included into her insurance plan was taken out. The old woman had to experience the tough choice – whether to find $650 to cover a 3-month supply of this pill at home pharmacies (under Medicare) or look for cheaper generics overseas. After a few tries Lyn decided to order Strattera that was not covered by any U.S. insurance plan from Canadian pharmacies. Also she has found a doctor-assigned generic that costs only $99 for 3-month of regular use.
High-income countries like Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom are known for the notoriously super expensive prescription and OTC pills. Most elderly people suspiciously treat the rising online pharmacies and offered generics – instead they prefer to overpay hundreds of dollars for popular brand medications.
All users of Medicare insurance plans had to face an added financial burden, because the U.S. Congress has banned the governmental program from negotiating prices for certain medications. The Trump administration has the ideas of making drug companies to include prices in television commercials of their meds. But still they do not legally allow Medicare to negotiate directly with manufacturers for a better deal for the meds allowed in elderly’s insurance plans.
The House Committee on Oversight Reform announced in January 2019 an investigation concerning the U.S. drug pricing and pharmacy practices. In the meantime, elderly patients who need their meds right now are looking for other options than local pharmacies. The vast choice is the wide range of online Canadian pharmacies where the prices change drastically.
The same was confirmed by Jules Enatsk, 66, a retired healthcare consultant. He had to buy a rosacea medication tube for $77 at his regular drugstore in the neighborhood. He found this price to be very high for a 60-gram tube and he asked his grandchild to check the price for the same drug at Canadian pharmacy. And it turned out to be only $29.
“This [generics] is especially relevant now, in the conditions of economic crisis,” says Nick McGee, a PhRMA spokesperson. According to him, original drugs are initially very expensive. This is a business, and development companies and manufacturers have to regain profit. Naturally, the original drugs are not everyone can afford. And then there are copies of the original drugs or, as they are called, generics, which are much cheaper. The pharmaceutical industry is developing in Canada. Every year, new production facilities are opened, factories are switching to international quality standards, and their products, including generics, become qualitative.
Generic medications right now take out about 84 percent of all prescriptions filled in the U.S. Most patients, but mostly elderly people, have to look for the reliable sources towards specific generic medications. However, finding top-quality generics can be challenging because wholesale drug manufacturers risk at producing replicas of brand medications at lower cost.
Another challenge is to wait while the U.S. patent for a brand drug will expire. For example, asthma inhaler Advair Diskus expired many years ago, but a generic medication has yet to be introduced — federal U.S. regulating services require to give license for worldwide manufacturers for the production of generic pills. Right now the cash price for 3 inhalers will cost over $1,413 in the territory of the United States of America. The same amount of generic inhalers can be taken in Canadian Pharmacy for less than $400.
Online Canadian pharmacies are making overseas generic drugs in foreign countries more accessible. But keep in mind that you need to buy only from pharmacies that require a prescription and that are certified in their home country. Services like My Canadian Pharmacy allow finding the lowest prices for generic and branded pills online. Though, there are other websites with the same services.
Why do elderly patients prefer generics?
Original drugs have a wide range of generics from different countries-manufacturers: both domestic and foreign. Depending on the desired composition, characteristics, price, the patient can choose the most suitable drug.
Increasingly, elderly patients in the U.S. are choosing generics, and not original drugs, because they are easy to find in any Canadian pharmacy, the cost is much lower, and the characteristics are identical with the original and equivalent drug. Generics for potency can usually be found in online pharmacies. You can order them with delivery to the United States of America.
Generics usually do not cause addiction, drowsiness and do not affect the level of hormones. Some of them can be combined with alcoholic beverages. Also, it is easy to find a generic suitable for people suffering from diabetes. In any case, when buying a generic, it is recommended to read the instructions for the drug and not to exceed the indicated dosage of the active substance.
Generic drugs are not inferior to the original drugs in effectiveness, but are much more affordable. Some generics contain vitamin complexes that have a beneficial effect on men’s health.
The high cost of the original drug is due to the high cost of production, research, testing. Brand awareness also imposes a certain amount on the cost of the drug. Generics are made according to ready-made recipes and testing, making it more accessible to the consumer. The effectiveness of quality generics is clinically proven and they have equal achievements in terms of therapeutic properties.
A patient who does not chase famous brands and does not like to overpay, you can safely buy generics. This is especially true of drugs for men who have never been cheap. And generics for ED pills offer great opportunities for many elderly patients. The desired result will be achieved, funds saved, and these are the main two advantages of generics.
Medicines are an important component in the life of any person, and pensioners especially. For many of them, an unpleasant surprise was the rise in prices for medicines. Elderly people are accustomed to certain trade names and they do not use the recommendations of the doctors to replace the original imported drugs with domestic generics.