Online Pharmacy & Drug News

In 2006 health care spending in the US rose to $7,026 per US citizen.  An alarming 16 percent of the US gross domestic product!   

This is why the President Elect will be focusing on all areas of the US health care system, including the high cost of medicines compared to the rest of the western world.  Obama has made it clear that he wants a health care system that is affordable and is accessible to everyone. 

Pharmaceutical business analysts believe that Obama’s win will mean that there will be a change in policy to allow for the re-importation of many drugs.  This may also include speeding up regulatory pathway for bio-generics.   Although bio-generics are already manufactured in Europe and India, there is no pathway for regulatory approval in the U.S., which is stalling their introduction into the lucrative U.S. market.

America’s President in waiting has declared war on an industry that is bleeding the nation dry. He has the cost of drugs at the top of his agenda which is why the stock prices of many of the powerful companies in the industry (Pfizer, Merck and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline) are falling further than other stocks.

With “President Obama” will come a serious discussion about socializing the nations drug supply.   The current system simply is not working with American expenditure per head on healthcare double the amount in Britain and a large part of that is related to the cost of drugs.

On average, for the same drug, an Americans pays twice as much as someone in the UK. While American insurers pick up a great deal of the bill the lack of efficiency is a problem.   Despite the insurance system, over 45% of healthcare costs are carried by the American taxpayer.

According to polls, healthcare costs are a bigger issue than Iraq for most Americans, hardly surprising given that it affects a greater number. Many pensioners fly to Canada in search of cheaper prescription medicine while others use the Internet to access online pharmacies most of which offer drugs from other countries at much lower prices.   In his campaigning Senator Obama said he supported drug imports but he also wants to fix the underlying problems causing the price disparity that exist between America and other countries

Of course the drug giants argue that without their US profits, research and development of new medicines will slow. It is true that the industry reinvests more of its sales revenue than most back into R&D however its problem is that innovative drugs with high sales potential are simply not emerging.

Both Democratic and Republican presidential nominees support prescription drug reimportation from other nations. 
A Obama campaign advsior said, “We have not changed our position on this issue, but obviously there have been concerns about countries like China,” adding, “Our plan does not envision importing drugs from China , but from countries with strong records of safety, like Canada and Europe.”

A McCain campaign spokesperson said  McCain understands the need to have a properly documented prescription drug supply chain.  McCain would require all medications from other nations to “meet state and federal standards for safety.   This would require additional funds to ensure the safety of such medications.  FDA Director Janet Woodcock said that the agency would require $225 million in additional funds to inspect such medications (CQ HealthBeat, 10/27).

All products listed on www.MedStoreInternational.com are from developed western countries with strong drug regulatory agencies and/or from FDA approved manufacturing facilities.