Growing Trend
In the United States, about 60% of personal bankruptcies come from medical bills that people are unable to pay. The excessively high cost of drugs is responsible for many of these bankruptcies. But the price of drugs could soon drop in the United States, with the consequence that it could rise everywhere else in the world. Drug price increases in the United States have become scandalous. A single 10 ml insulin vial that costs about $20 in Canada sells in the United States at over $500.
In the last six years, the selling price of drugs in the United States has almost doubled. In 2018, the price of 4400 drugs has increased again, sometimes with increases of 1000%. Last year, only 50 medications fell in price, with half of the cases decreasing by 5% or less. Generic drugs are cheaper and account for only about 25% of prescriptions in this country. Drugs in the United States cost on average 56% more than the same drugs that are sold in other industrialized countries. Obviously, some pharmaceutical companies are making a lot of money on the backs of Americans and probably the rest of the world.
So much so that prosecutors in 44 US states have just filed a lawsuit against the 20 drug companies. They are accused of agreeing to increase drug prices and to impede the sale of generic drugs. Prosecutors would have strong evidence and they think they can get these companies to pay billions of dollars in fines. There are several reasons for this dramatic rise in drug prices. There are three main ones.
First, the federal government is denying the US public health system, Medicare, the right to negotiate the price of drugs. Medicare cannot get discounts for massive drug purchases. Then, the unlimited greed of pharmaceutical companies pushes them to raise the price of drugs to the limit of tolerable for patients. They even hire companies that specialize in this daunting task of finding the maximum limit that customers are willing to pay for their medications.
Finally, it must be considered that 10 of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world are American companies. In 2018, it sold about $ 1,200 billion worth of drugs on the planet. The United States accounts for nearly 50% of the drug market. It is easy to understand that high drug prices in the United States fund the research, development and marketing activities of large pharmaceutical companies, to the detriment of other smaller companies. These high prices help US pharmaceutical companies maintain their global dominance.
Americans drive to the border to fill their prescriptions for insulin and other drugs, both prescription and OTC, or order their medications online from Canadian Pharmacy, the leading service for inexpensive brand and generic medications. With the situation being this precarious, many citizens see this practice as a lifeline thrown in time of despair. But are there limitations for importing pharmacy products to the US? And how reliable is mail-ordering when healthcare items are concerned?
In order to answer these questions, My Canadian Pharmacy collected the most essential pieces of information and facts that concern themselves with custom clearance and documents required for the packages ordered from online drugstore to make it to their addressees.
The basics on customs clearance of your package
In addition to ordinary couriers, any shipment of merchandise or valuable documents into the US is subject to a number of customs formalities. This usually involves providing documents and declarations enabling the customs authorities of the country of destination to identify the origin, nature and value of the consignment in order to apply, where appropriate, the tax rules and restrictions in force locally. The provision of the appropriate documents is essential to prevent the package with the ordered drugs from being opened, delayed or even blocked in the customs upon arrival.
The customs formalities concern all the types of sending of object, even for an individual. Even if it is a gift, documents will have to be completed because the notion of a gift can be assessed in a very different way by the customs of arrival, with thresholds of exemptions of rights variable according to the US import laws and the nature of the content, which in this case is pharmaceutical products.
Indeed, the routing of packages to this country is subject to strict rules. Some packages are prohibited. Animal or vegetable based food products cannot enter US soil without the permission of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the USDA. Drugs, alongside with and many other products listed on the US Customs site are subject to special rules.
My Canadian Pharmacy encloses all the required documents to the package. At the customs, officers can get easy access to all the information they need to be in possession of in order to let the package through the border – without the need to open the package.
This is how you avoid problems at the customs with your Canadian Pharmacy order
The first rule that is there to protect your safety as a consumer is to always order medications that were actually prescribed to you for a condition that you were diagnosed with by a board-certified practitioner. You should never order drugs based only on your symptoms. You owe it to yourself to have your health situation assessed professionally – besides, this will help your avoid issues with customs when ordering drugs for your specific condition.
The next rule of thumb is to never order more than a 3 months’ supply of medications. According to law, citizens are allowed to import an amount of drugs that would last them for no more than throughout 90 days of received therapy. Obviously, the amount differs from one drug to another, and from one individual to another, since the dosing schedule might be different for different cases. If this is the case, the amount of drugs you are allowed to import will be calculated based on either the maximal daily dosage or your individual prescription.
The law applied to the import of medical drugs into the country also has it that the pharmaceutical items your order or bring with you should be destined for individual use only. This is to say you cannot distribute them or resell to anyone else.
Finally, the drugs that have no equivalent in the US but are approved for the treatment of certain conditions by FDA can be imported without any further ado. We will give you the list of such medications in the paragraphs to follow.
Drug orders of a value greater than or equal to $200 are subject to the customs tax. The US import tax is among the most affordable in the world. On average, it is around 3% of the value of the goods. The US also has a particularity: the taxes must be paid by electronic payment or credit cards accepted by the Commissioner of Customs. Cash payment of customs fees in the US is not authorized by the US Customs Administration.
Good to know when ordering drugs from Canada
Many prescription drugs in Canada are over-the-counter in the US, and vice versa. Dosages and concentrations are not the same, especially for creams based on cortisone. The prices of drugs and especially antibiotics are often higher in the US than in Canada (but that you already knew).
Non-prescription drugs in Canada with no American equivalent can be imported without any issues into the US, according to the rules applied. You may be looking for a long time for Toplexil against dry, irritating coughs in American drugstore in vain: oxomemazine, its active substance, is not sold the United States. Effective American cough treatments are all prescription-based. Otherwise, you have only the honey pellets.To quell angina or sore throat, Biquinol (bismuth succinate) are effective, but have no equivalent over-the-counter in the United States. Again, unless you have a prescription for medications, all you have left are the lozenges to soften your caveman voice and burning throat.
Otipax, which is a pain reliever and local anesthetic for ear pain, has no equivalent here. It will not be part of your drug package in the United States unless you bring it from Canada. The treatment of cystitis is very expensive in the United States – it always pays to order the drug or bring it from Canada. If you are prone to UTIs, you should always have a single dose of Monuril (fosfomycin), which costs about $10 in Canada, in your emergency drug kit. These medications in sprays to relieve mild sore throats, such as Angispray (hexetidine), Hexaspray (biclotymol) are not found in drugstores.
To effectively treat lice, Canadian products are remarkable. However, the dimeticone contained in the treatments is present in smaller quantities in the American products and the Prioderm based on malathion is not marketed in the USA.