Reimporting drugs from Canada is BS, people

[jmowreader]

This I can't figure out.

Let's pull the name of a drug company out of the air. Oh...let's say Pfizer. They make Lipitor, which is an anticholesterol drug. Lipitor is a popular, profitable drug.

It is currently less expensive to ship Lipitor to Canada and let the Canadians ship it back to the US than it is to send the same Lipitor to a US pharmacy. And you know both transactions are profitable for Pfizer--huge corporations don't give you the time of day unless there's money in it for them.

Before we glom onto "drug reimportation" as the solution to all our woes, let's figure out what the Canadians are doing that makes reimportation fiscally feasible, and see if we can do it too.

[KingFlorez]

1. They have price controls

[supernova]

4. Exactly

Their nationalized health service negotiates with the drug companies for better prices for Canadian consumers. As do the British. As do the French, anybody with a nationalized healthcare sector does.

We should be doing it too.

And more power to the ones who can get their meds from up north.

[sam sarrha]

8. they have universal health care and by in block Canada, our Government de jour

lets the Corporations write the bills and they pass them while Goose Stepping to the BANK

[valerief]

2. Our congress won't let us. nt

[LittleOne]

3. If I remember correctly...

Canada has laws governing how much you can charge for drugs but then has a pretty high despensing fee. So a little old lady would pay the same despensing fee for all her monthly drugs as a teeenager buying birth control.

[pinto]

5. Bulk pricing, negotiated by the Canadian gov't.

[pooja]

6. Instead of taking so many drugs.. lets teach our children healthy

lifestyles so that they can maintain a well conditioned, diet-balanced life... then when they get older supplements and daily walks will suffice and the drug companies can go screw themselves.

Just look at how hard they are trying to dispel supplemental additives in your diet. They say ooooh watch out on that vitamin C, it may make you sick. Well, if you overdose, you'll know it with a bout of diahrea... I can take about 2000-4000mg before I reach that. I don't everyday.. But if I start getting sick, I def. do.

[Ediacara]

7. Here's a solution

Give drug companies two options:

1) We'll let you have a patent for ten years on this drug so long as you never advertise it, and follow strict pricing guidelines.

2) We'll let you advertise the crap out of any drug you make and charge whatever you want so long as you forego a patent and allow generics to be produced right away.

The current system of patented drugs with 30-60% of the price going straight into TV commercials is probably the biggest rip off in the country right now.

[donco6]

9. Our state negotiates state awards for lots of things.

And we school districts piggyback on their awards to buy stuff at the state price. Why is it that doing this at the federal level is wrong?