Consumer import of prescription drugs

Consumer import of prescription drugs refers to an individual person, typically a patient, getting prescription drugs from a foreign country for their own personal use in their own country.

Import mechanisms

People can have drugs shipped to them from online pharmacies. They may travel internationally for the purpose of medical tourism, and purchase drugs there to be used back home.

Causes

Individual consumers will only consider seeking drugs from other countries if they have some barrier to access in their own country. One barrier to access is high local prices compared to other markets. Another barrier to access could be legal restrictions preventing an individual from getting a drug they want or need.

International drug market prices

In some markets, drug prices are set or influenced by the prices in other, nearby markets.^[1] In Europe, for example, people freely and easily travel to different countries, and the price of a certain drug in one country affects the price in other, nearby countries.^[1] Having this kind of competitive exchange can keep prices low, but it can also lead to lowered drug accessibility.^[1] Sometimes a manufacturer may choose not to offer a drug in one market, to ensure success in selling the drug at a higher price in a different market.^[1]

Businesses, manufacturers and drug retailers wish to control the supply of pharmaceuticals in their own marketplace.^[2] As such, if low-cost drugs entered a market from other lower-cost territories, what might develop is pure price-based selling.^[2] The TRIPS agreement is an example of a World Trade Organization treaty which regulates how drugs can be traded in the international marketplace.^[2]

Some developing countries might receive access to lower-cost drugs through compulsory licenses.^[3] Compulsory licenses affect markets outside the country in which they are issued.^[3]

Variation in legality

Drugs which are legal in one place may not be legal in another.

By region

Canada to United States

People in the United States have easy access to Canada. The quality of medicine in Canada is comparable to that of the United States. Drug prices are often much lower in Canada than in the United States. To save money, some consumers in the United States seek to purchase drugs in Canada. Different people have published different perspectives on this practice.^[4]

One major on-line supplier, Canada Drugs, announced its closure on July 13, 2018, as part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.^[5]

Two organizations, the Canadian International Pharmacy Association and the PharmacyChecker Verification Program, verify the safety and legitimacy of online pharmacies that ship from Canada to the United States.^[6]

The average savings was 81% when purchased in Canada.^[7]

Mexico to United States

In some cases, U.S. insurance companies will pay consumers of high-cost drugs to personally travel to Mexico to buy the same drugs at a much lower cost there.^[8]

Society and culture

Petition for government reform

Consumers may feel that prescription drugs which are available to multiple countries to be of equivalent quality, and feel comfortable buying and using drugs by choosing to purchase from the country which offers the drugs at the lowest price.

Legal status

Governments typically oversee the import of prescription drugs so bringing a prescription drug from a foreign country could be Illegal drug trade.

See also

• List of pharmacies by country

References

1. Vogler, Sabine; Paris, Valérie; Ferrario, Alessandra; Wirtz, Veronika J.; de Joncheere, Kees; Schneider, Peter; Pedersen, Hanne Bak; Dedet, Guillaume; Babar, Zaheer-Ud-Din (6 January 2017). "How Can Pricing and Reimbursement Policies Improve Affordable Access to Medicines? Lessons Learned from European Countries" (PDF). Applied Health Economics and Health Policy. 15 (3): 307–321. doi:10.1007/s40258-016-0300-z. PMID 28063134. S2CID 4755170.
2. Pashkov, VM; Golovanova, IA; Olefir, AA (2016). "The impact of the legal regime of intellectual property protection in the pharmaceutical market". Wiadomosci Lekarskie. 69 (3 pt 2): 582–586. PMID 27717949.
3. Stavropoulou, Charitini; Valletti, Tommaso (10 January 2014). "Compulsory licensing and access to drugs" (PDF). The European Journal of Health Economics. 16 (1): 83–94. doi:10.1007/s10198-013-0556-2. PMID 24408475. S2CID 16287360.
4. Shepherd, M (July 2007). "Drug importation and safety of drugs obtained from Canada". The Annals of Pharmacotherapy. 41 (7): 1288–91. doi:10.1345/aph.1k249. PMID 17578879. S2CID 46076280.
5. . Archived from the original on 2018-05-02. Retrieved 2018-05-02.
6. "Which is the safest online pharmacy?". PharmacyChecker.com. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
7. Joe Graedon, "Can you trust Canadian online pharmacies?" The People's Pharmacy, 2020.
8. Steps To Fix America's Broken Prescription Drug System