# Canadian pharmacies



## Tiss (Aug 22, 2000)

Hi, I'd like to ask the Canadians on the BB if there is a specific online pharmacy that you trust. I live in the US and my sister needs brand name Prozac desperetly. Her damn HMO will only pay for a generic which does not work for her. Would appreciate any info.Thanks! Tiss


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## Ashers86 (Dec 31, 2007)

I honestly don't know of any online pharmacies....Just my input since I am Canadian.







Sorry about that.. but that concept is news to me; then again, not something I've looked for or needed because my pharmacy is literally a block away from where I live.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Here is some infohttp://www.elderweb.com/home/node/3097One needs to be careful with online pharmacies, a lot of places that aren't good can look OK and you may not get the quality of drug you expect (or even get the right one).Hope those links help.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1400254_pf.html has some info from the FDA study of on-line pharmacies that claim to be Canadian.K.


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## overitnow (Nov 25, 2001)

I, too, am Canadian, but go to the drugstore, rather than on-line, when I must. The whole topic of these kinds of businesses scares me, from the point of view of what kinds of drugs are making it into what kinds of customers. A case in point. Today, I received the usual spam ad for the usual viagra/cialis kinds of things. But they were also offering Ambien and Valium. I don't know if there is a requirement for a prescription or if they have a doctor on staff that just writes one for their files; but these do not seem to me to be products I want for sale without some form of controls over dosages, frequency of use, the possibility of street sale, etc.I know that doesn't answer your question nor address your sister's issues with her HMO; but this whole "freeing" of prescription medicine into the general marketplace just seems wrong.Mark


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## Guest (Mar 19, 2008)

Ouch - I'm a Brit but I'd 100% agree with Mark - something like Prozac (I think you mentioned) is a really serious anti-depressant drug with potentially very serious side-effects - I know, I had fits when I was prescribed this - very rare but you can imagine how serious it could be if this drug was in some way contaminated. I'm not medical so I don't really understand what you mean by a Generic - you mean an SSRI generic - that can't be resposible medicine. If whatever she's been prescribed doesn't work - and do remember your sister would need to give this at least 6/8 weeks (unless she's having adverse side-effects like the fitting I was describing - and she'd know about that - promise) - then she needs to go back to her family doctor - I don't care what the cost is - and demand that she is prescribed whatever is considered appropriate to best manage her symptoms. If she doesn't get proper sense from the family doctor - well she either needs to see another within the practise to get referred to a psychiatrist. You cannot be expected to go "shopping" for something as serious as an anti-depressant surely?Good luckSue


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

SueIn the US most drugs when they first come out are available only as a "brand name" by the company that developed it. They have exclusive rights for a number of years.After that time other companies can make the same drug (and they are just as FDA regulated as the original company) but they sell it under the generic name (usually describes what it is) of the drug, not whatever short brand name that is good for marketing it the original company came up with.Prescribing generics usually is considered acceptable practice over here, and 99% of the time it doesn't make a difference for the patient other than it costs less.So Prozac is the brand name, and the original. Several companies now make it but only the original sells it under Prozac an the other sell it under the name starting with an F that escapes me at the minute.Theoretically the generics are supposed to match the original in activity and how much gets in the blood stream and all that. They may have a slightly different formulation in the other stuff they put in to make a pill a pill. Sometimes there are differences in how the brand name and the generic work for some people. Funny thing is I find the generic for one of my drugs works better than the brand name, mostly because it is in a capsule rather than a tablet.Some drugs, like antidepressants, seem to have more generic is not quite equivalent for some people problems. Often the insurance wants to pay for the generic. Now sometimes the doctor can write a letter to the insurance and get them to cover the brand name (but they will do that at the cover the brand name price which is usually a higher co-pay than the generic, somtimes a much higher copay, but my be cheaper than full price, even from Canada).A legitimate mail order Canadian pharmacy should be just as good as a legitimate mail order American pharmacy (some insurance companies will do mail order drugs for a cheaper price than picking up at the pharmacy).The problem is sorting the legit pharmacies from the ones that are not. The ones that are not can be very dangerous. Not only do you get drugs you shouldn't be getting, but often they are expired or counterfeit.Legit pharmacies require a prescription from your personal doctor to be sent to them. They don't have a doctor that works for them and writes them without ever seeing you, or just fill without any doctor at all. I think even legit mail order from Canada may be blocked by customs if they catch it, so make sure you know what the policy is if they won't let that package into the country.K.


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## Guest (Mar 19, 2008)

OK right Kathleen - I'm abit sensitive to this subject because I do know how ideosyncratic antidepressants are - I was initially prescribed a variation (or whatever you'd call it) of Mitrazapene called Zisprin which was soluble - initially I struggled on the non-soluble. I think by the very nature of the problem you are trying to address - namely depression/anxiety or any variation on that "theme" patients are likely to be highly "tuned" (if I can put it like that) to even fairly minor variations in their prescription.Anyway - Tiss, I hope your sister can get some proper answers - surely they have to be sorted out at source firstly - ie by her doctor before where she gets it from is sorted out.Sue


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## Ashers86 (Dec 31, 2007)

You know, the later comments did bring up a good point...I honestly don't think you'd even be allowed to purchase Prozac. I have no idea how these online pharmacies would work, but even the generic brands of anti-depressants are behind the counter here and need a prescription. Like I said, I don't know how it would work, and how things are elsewhere, but just from what I hear in our local news, purchasing stuff like that would be almost a legal issue since a lot of kids around here are figuring out how to get high on non-prescriptive drugs and making even worse with prescription drugs.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

There are legit on-line/mail order pharmacies (both in the US and Canada) and they require the exact same prescription from your personal doctor that a walk in pharmacy requires.If they say they will do it without that, I wouldn't trust them to actually have the real drugs to ship out.You'd have to fax them the hard copy or they'd get your doctor to call in the prescription.If the doctor will write a prescription for generic prozac, I assume the same doctor in this example will write one for the brand name version. It isn't the doctor that won't do it, it is the insurance company that is the hold up.


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## Guest (Mar 20, 2008)

Hang on - so you have to wait for an insurance company every time you go to the doctors for a prescription - yikes!!!! So what happens if you are chronically depressed and need to be put on urgent medication? Can you buy it yourself? Here there is a blanket prescription charge of just under £7.00 per item. My very sporting GP puts me on a 3 months prescription of my anti-depressant which 1/3 the cost. Children/folk in full-time education/pensioners and those on benefits don't have to pay.Sue


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

My insurance company, for the most part, directly pays the pharmacy and all I have to pay is the co-pay the same day I take the prescription in.You can pay up front and hope they reimburse you. However that can be expensive depending on the drug.Most of the time my prescriptions come with 5 refills on them and when those run out the pharmacy just calls the doctor and they re-authorize it.Most insurance companies have different co-pay amounts depending on if the drug is a generic, a preferred brand name, or a brand name where you can get a generic.I think I pay $10 for a generic (sometimes to get people to try them we can get them for free for a couple of months out of the year), $30 for a brand name with no generic or preferred brand name, and $50 for a brand name when a generic is available (and some other weird things like one I have to have a script for another asthma med in the last 6 months to get the cheaper rate, don' t ask).However there are some drugs they don't want to cover at all and to get the one I have of that I needed a letter from the doctor saying I need it so do it anyway.Full price pay it yourself is cheaper at Canadian pharmacies most of the time than the exact same thing from a USA pharmacy.The other complication is no two insurance companies/HMOs have the same formulary list so you really have to figure out the rules for yours.K.


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## Ashers86 (Dec 31, 2007)

That seems confusing! Our coverage does vary depending on who your insurance company is... but most are done direct. So if I go to the walk-in clinic because I'm sick and come out with anti-biotics, I just go to the pharmacy, have it filled, and only pay them the 10% that I'm responsible for. Usually that 10% is for all prescriptions, not just generic or whatnot.The one thing I hate is some companies cap you off at $500 a year (my latest employers co.)... which gets used up in about 3 months for me because I have so many! I'm so glad my other half was able to get me on his coverage because they don't have a limit on prescriptions.I'm just glad I've been using the same pharmacy for the last 10+ years. The pharmacist knows what I'm allergic to, and which generics have not worked for me. If it's significantly cheaper to get a generic, she'll tell me and suggest a switch. For that reason, I wouldn't go online.I find it too fishy!


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Unfortunately for most people in the US driving to Canada to fill the prescription usually negates the cheaper price (shipping and handling charges do not).Lots of people in the US have been ordering drugs from Real, Legal, Legitimate Canadian pharmacies for years without problems. So it can be done, and I posted the info on how you know if it is a real pharmacy or not.I like having a local person that knows what is going on with me as well. However if the choice is mail order it from a legit pharmacy, do without it completely because you can't afford it from a US pharmacy, or take a generic that is harmful to me even if most people can take it OK, I'd mail order.Sadly the situation with medical care/insurance/underinsurance can make it so there isn't any good choices.I would encourage people to get their doctors to write letters to the insurance company to appeal the "we don't cover that". Most of them will cover it if you can get your doctor to fight for it. It is just a pain in the butt to do that.Insurance here is overly complicated and I think health care overall would be cheaper if all the insurance companies had to conform to a single standard. That way the doctors wouldn't have to hire additional assistants who do nothing but deal with insurance companies. Every extra person they have to hire is that much more expensive medical care gets for everyone. There are starting to be doctors that do not ever submit anything to the insurance, they give you the information to submit it yourself. They are usually substantially cheaper than other doctors because they don't need to hire extra people or spend time on insurance matters rather than treating patients. {/soapbox}K.


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