close to the end for Import meds?

[LazyMoose]

Surprised I have not seen anything here yet. The bill was signed last month. The right for US officials to confiscate import medications. It was latched on to a FDA drug safety bill, and was signed. Says they are granted the right to confiscate or destroy import meds, but its not an order (yet).

Hope this info is wrong as this web site below certainly makes it look like a done deal.

http://www.rxrights.org/your-thoughts/2012/07/12/fda-bill-signed-importation-in-serious-jeopardy#.UE_xZ66csT1

Anyone knowing more accurate info, please add comments. This effects all Erfa users (not sold in USA) and many others that cant afford the cost of US meds.

Freedom? Where's it going?

LM

[Brucergoldberg]

Lazy,

Thank you for bringing this up.  I spoke to henri today back and forth and he actually helped me figure something out on my own medical condition and may explain why i have not gotten any better.  If it wasn't for you posting this, i would not of reached out to Henri and he would not of explained what he thinks happened to me.    

BRuce

[LazyMoose]

Time will tell.

And its hard to get accurate info from the online pharmas outside the boarder since the person you talk to is just saying what they are directed to say.

I dont recall seeing any logo resembling a USA licencse on the canadian online pharma websites. The better ones do, of course show all the Canadian aprovals.

[ktr19]

Bruce...

If I’m reading that correctly the company itself is allowed to sell in the US (meaning they have a license in the US to sell prescriptions, just like Walgreens, rite-aid, etc.) so purchasing the meds direct from the manufacture will be ok as long as they are licensed in the US.

I think what the new bill does is stop all imports from pharmacies or manufacturers not licensed in the USA…I may be incorrect on that but I think that is what this does!

[Brucergoldberg]

This is from Henri:
Dear Bruce,

The information you have received is incorrect. We are able to ship to the US and we do intend to continue doing so. There are however some Canadian online pharmacies that have problem providing all kind of medication to US patients. We suggest that our patient go to www.pharmasourcing.com to get it directly from us. It's a bit more expensive, but you always have the latest batchs and we have a tracking number and require a signature to get the medication.
As you suffer of Hashimoto, there are always ups and downs that are sometimes difficult to control. It is important that you find a physician that will be able to access you correctly and provide you with the right treatment. If you or anyone in the group needs assistance with dosages adjustment or have a particular problem they want to submit, I will be glad to help them.
Regards from Canada,

Dr Henri Knafo

[Brucergoldberg]

Henri with erfa is in my business network on linkedin.com   He is their medical director.  I wrote him to ask him the scoop and will report back any findings.  

[LazyMoose]

I spoke to three online pharmas that have carried ERFA.

# one said they dont believe there is any immediate issue (I think they were told to say that).

# two was very aware and thought some exporters were overreacting and this company had no issues currently. And they didnt believe there was enough man power to inspect all packages even if they tried.

# three said they flat out no longer shipped to the USA - new policy

Its a good time to get your stockpile NOW and then watch what .

[LazyMoose]

Anyplace outside the USA is "imported" to us here.

No one is supposed to sell drugs on Amazon unless you're a pharmacy.

[Brucergoldberg]

Holy cow...  amazon is making people remove listings for imported items including thyroid-s

[Brucergoldberg]

do you think this will apply to people taking thyroid-s from the orient?

[artfemme]

The FDA is bought by Big Pharma. I think we are in a lot of trouble. As part of this same bill, Medicare has effectively made it impossible to get a compounded medication because the neutral bases that are used for compounding "are not monitored for safety by the FDA." I don't know if other health insurance will do the same. For example, I use BHRT because I am still in the early stages of menopause, unusual for my age. I cannot take conjugated estrogen or progesterone (Provera, PremPro, Premarin) made from horse urine....made me really sick. Thank god, because several lawsuits have been settled recently, for huge sums, asserting that these medications, especially PremPro, caused cancer. There are other lawsuits that assert the same in various stages of the trial process, yet the FDA continues to say they are safe and insurance companies and Medicare continue to carry them on their formularies and promote them over other forms of hormone replacement. I also cannot take Prometrium, another brand name form of progesterone synthesized from Mexican wild yam and molecularly identical to the human hormone. It contains peanut oil and red dye and makes me cough. Recently a generic was approved and I thought surely it would avoid the 2 most common allergens in America and use another oil base, but NO. The generic is actually the brand, repackaged by another company, with profits split between the two, in other words, 2 mark-ups making the generic expensive, unlike most. And in fact, the compounded medication was available for 10 years by prescription before Abbott figured out a different delivery system for the ONE active ingredient and patented their brand. There have never been any accusations against its safe usage since it became available in 1973.

I cannot take estrogen without also taking progesterone without risk of endrometrial cancer, and for years have had it compounded for me through Express Scripts for $30 for a 3 month supply. And my THYROID HORMONES are balanced to my HRT, so besides the fact that I had a very bad effect physically when I went off the HRT for a year, during which time I was hemorrhaging with my period because of my thyroid disfunction, if I stop taking HRT I will have to have my two thyroid horones adjusted by blood test all over again....it's taken me two years, every 5-6 weeks, just to get to where I am now.

While this new FDA stance against neutral bases....they use a hypoallergenic cream such as what is used as the base for every over-the-counter cream in America, or lactose, which is component of MILK for crissakes....it means that anybody with an allergy or a sensitivity to an ingredient in a manufactured drug is up a creek, at least if they are on Medicare. And so what you have said about the egregiousness of the bill is not only about drugs from Canada, but also discriminates against those who cannot tolerate dyes and fillers in drugs made here.

Corporate money is our overlord.

[LazyMoose]

Reson? They call it safety.

We know the real reason is they want to keep the big overpriced money from meds in the US. This bill was backed by big pharma.

Fact a lot of meds are made overseas, shipped to a big pharma company here and resold.

Many types of meds of the same brand are 5 times higher cost in the US vs another country. Well if this bill is true we all know someone who cant afford more expensive non-thyroid drugs now if they have to pay the jacked up US price. For this reason I am surprised at the lack of concern  with this informational thread.

[kl42]

whats the reason? aren't alot of these imported drugs actually manufactured in the US anyway.? is this just for the profit of the Big Pharmacy co. ? whats this about?

[goolarra]

Coincidentally, I just got a PM from a member who lives outside the U.S.  She said that it's getting very difficult for her to get ERFA.  She used to be able to have it sent to someone in the U.S. and then forwarded on to her.  However, she said she suspected import laws had changed in the U.S. because she was now going to have to get someone in Canada to order the meds.  The Canadian pharmacy will no longer ship to a country other than the one the script is from (she can't have it shipped directly).

So, I don't know what that tells you, but it seems there might be rumblings going on...

[LazyMoose]

I learned about this Bill and the link above on a canadian online pharmacy last night.

No info on Mary S's about thyroid site that I could find.

No info on stop the thyroid madness, which promotes desicated thy med.

Coalition for Better Thyroid Care (was save natural thyroid), could not find it there either. But that site is not layed out in a forum so its hard to navigate.This site was based on natural thyroid.

Thyroid talk - again no info.

If this is true, could catch many people off gaurd.

[Barb135]

I haven't seen anything on this on the news or anything, but I'll try to do some research and see what I can find.

[ktr19]

"Freedom? Where's it going?"

Good Question....

I won’t get into the political reasons since this is the improper forum. But it is sad that we can get just about every other product we need (and dont need) from overseas…except those that keep us healthy!