Rush Limbaugh, Victim, Perp or none of the above? (Part 1) by Bill Kammarada

I’d like to add to this analysis the following:

Substantial dollar savings over US and Canadian pharmacies. (Yes, buying offshore is cheaper than even Canadian pharmacies)

In most, if not all cases, the drugs are manufactured by the same Pharmaceutical companies that make the drugs for the US and Canada, with the exception that they are only paying the prevailing local wage, taxes and other lower manufacturing costs, thus their costs are lower. You can bet the major manufacturing companies keep up to US standards even in their offshore facilities to avoid negative and potentially explosive bad publicity.

Generic drugs might be available overseas at substantial savings over the brand name, where they might not be available in the US and Canada.

Partially eliminating the (every three-month) doctor visit and subsequent savings in time and cost just to renew your prescription. (Yes, you doctor is a legal drug pusher, charging you to renew your prescription. Sorry, that is my opinion)

Mr. Henkel ‘s article further states:

"Internet drug shopping is said to save consumers money. In some cases this is true. A survey in the fall of 1999 by Consumer Reports showed that buyers could save as much as 29 percent (and as high as 50-80% offshore) by obtaining certain drugs online. But another study, conducted in 1999 by the University of Pennsylvania and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, tracked Internet sales of Viagra and Propecia and found that the two drugs were an average of 10 percent more expensive online than at local Philadelphia-area pharmacies. (I have a problem with that study. If it were so, why are so many people purchasing with Online Pharmacies? What 2 drugs did they track? Why only two? Try to find that Article; I can't. Link to Annals of Internal Medicine search page is at http://www.annals.org/search.dtl)

In another part of that study, researchers Bernard Bloom, Ph.D., and Ronald Iannocone found that 37 of the 46 sites they examined either required a prescription from a personal physician, or offered to prescribe a medication based solely on a questionnaire. But nine sites, all based outside the United States, did not require a prescription. (Not suprising, as most countries don’t require a prescription in their country.Guess they failed to mention that.)

The researchers also found that even when Web sites offered a questionnaire with the promise that a physician would review the form, nothing was generally known about the doctor's qualifications, and it was easy for users to provide false information to obtain a prescription.

Consumers seeking health products online can find dozens of sites that FDA officials say are legally questionable. A number of them specialize in providing drugs such as the antibiotic Cipro (ciprofloxacin), Viagra, the baldness therapy Propecia (finasteride), or the weight-loss treatment Xenical (orlistat). Others, based in foreign countries, promise to deliver prescription drugs at a much cheaper price than their domestic cost, but the drugs may be different from those approved in the United States or may be past their expiration dates. (Legally questionable is another way of saying nothing. Double talk. Either it’s legal or illegal. ) Still other sites make fraudulent health claims (Ouch, got to agree on this one.) or blatantly advertise that a customer can buy drugs with no prescription. Online drug sites can now be located in nearly any state or country having phone lines. (Prescriptions are not required in most counties. What’s so blatant about not requiring one!)

Some feel new laws will be needed to improve this situation. Whether new legislation will improve oversight of online pharmacies remains to be seen. For the moment, regulators have entered what the FDA's Shuren calls "a whole new ball game" that cuts across the limited jurisdictions of several federal and state agencies……." (Isn’t there enough regulation already?)

Pill Box's president William A. Stallknecht, R.Ph said that," one out of three prescriptions written are prescribed by doctors who've never seen their patients." Spring reported him as saying that the pharmaceutical drugs he sells online primarily Viagra, Propecia, Claritin, and Xenical are safe. These drugs only require a prescription because manufacturers are "milking their patents" before they expire and the drugs become available over the counter. (As far as prices for Viagra, and a few other high profit drugs, this is true. The manufacturers are artificially keeping their prices high, in league with the FDA.)

Tom Spring, wrote in PC World in June 2000 that it isn't illegal to purchase prescribed medication over the Internet if you have a prescription from your doctor. The ethical and legal questions surround the issue of whether a doctor can prescribe drugs over the Internet without ever meeting the patient.

(Actually, this is factually correct, but highly misleading. What he failed to mention was that certain Orphan Drugs (for rare diseases not tested in the US) and other FDA unapproved or drugs still in clinical trials in the US, but approved elsewhere (drugs for AIDS, etc), as well as legitimate approved pharmaceuticals can be imported without prescription provided it is a three month supply solely for personal use. Read the FDA Regulations and their contrary policy at http://rxasia.com/import.html )

This is not the case for controlled or narcotic prescriptions by any means, nor does this author condone the use of controlled or narcotic prescriptions. For a list of all controlled substances, see our friends at the US Injustice Dept at http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/agency/csa.htm.)

For our Canadian friends, see your list at http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-38.8/36012.html#rid-36062 )

CNN reported in June that the American Medical Association was going to be looking into Internet prescribing rules.

According to Spring the AMA says that online physicians who write prescriptions without patient contact are in direct violation of AMA policy. The organization wants states to penalize doctors for prescribing drugs sight unseen. (You know what happens when someone disagrees with the AMA? I’ll be getting hate mail )

Spring also talked about pharmacies popping up overseas that allow anyone with a credit card to purchase drugs like the tranquilizer XENIX, anabolic steroids, Rohypnol (date rape drug) (a sedative not available in the U.S.), and the narcotic Demerol.

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BIO:

Bill Kammarada started in the computer industry as an analyst in 1961. He is a Computer Consultant and Webmaster for www.RxAsia.com Following the loosening of FDA rules on Orphan Drugs and other drugs not supplied in the USA, he studied the subject extensively. He was asked to leave Hofstra University (NY) for not taking them seriously and went to Pace University (NY) where he majored in sarcasm and non-matriculation. You can reach Bill at laser_doctor@yahoo.com.

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