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To: TobagoJack who wrote (66460)	7/20/2005 3:33:32 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

"Illinois and Wisconsin announced plans on Monday to add Australia and New Zealand to the states' prescription drug import program" Brazil just say: Drop the prices else we don't respect patents!

To: TobagoJack who wrote (66460)	7/20/2005 11:52:25 AM
From: Slagle	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74559

TobagoJack Re: "flames to moth" There are some forces at work here of which I believe you are unaware so let me provide you with a couple of real-world examples: When I go to Mexico I buy up a supply of a particular Merk medication for a relative, the price there being way less than half the going US price, even bought online. Now the pills are made by Merk here in the USA (I called MERK and asked) and if you buy them here they come in a plastic pill bottle. If you buy the pills in Mexico they come individually blister packed labeled Merk Mexico (due to heat, humidity, bugs and to discourage counterfitters). I am told that the blister-packing and the distribution is the only thing done by Merk Mexico and even with this extra expense the stuff is less than half price down there. This same pill is available in the Philippines (I checked), even much cheaper than Mexico and still made here in the USA. Another example: My elderly Filipino father in law suffers from fairly serious bronchial disease and his Mindanao hometown doctor (typical Pinoy gad-about who visits San Francisco often) brought back some samples from California, one being a particular fairly new perscription inhaler medication made here in the USA and it worked wonders on father in law. I checked here at the local pharmacy and it was $100 per inhaler (and of course I would be unable to buy it anyway without a doctors perscription). I checked "drugstore.com" and the stuff was $75.00 per inhaler and I would still need a perscription from a doctor here, impossible with the patient in Mindanao on the other side of the world. Then I had an idea; I got out my Manila yellow pages and there it was, the US drug company had a Philippine operation in Manila. I thought that maybe the stuff might be available in Manila or if not maybe they could order it from the home office for father in law. I called them in Manila and they said NO PROBLEM, that the medication is sold all over the Philippines in every Mercury Drug pharmacia! There is one four blocks down the street and the stuff only costs $15 per inhaler. He has been buying these US made inhalers there for over two years now. If you go to Brownsville or McAllen Texas you will see a whole mob of elderly Americans going into Mexico, many of them to visit the Pharmacias and to stock up on medications. They are not going there to buy pills made in your wonderful Pakistan or some such place, but mostly medications made right here in the USA but sold at half price or less in Mexico. I know, for I have been there and talked to these folks. You also have some European meds there too, including things that are unavailable here due to the FDA. There is another incentive also. Here in the US you must have a doctors perscription. In Mexico or most everywhere else you just go to the pharmacia and write you own perscription right there at the counter. No need to vist a doctor. You can buy any antibiotic, blood pressure pill, diabetes meds, anything but strong narcotics without a doctor. It is this way nearly all over the world. Good system. In the Philippines a few years ago you could buy morphine that way, but I think there are some restrictions now. I haven't been pill shopping in Canada but for some reason USA made meds sell cheap there also. With the online pill ordering you get an "online perscription" from a supposed doctor in Canada at the online pill peddler. It still is not about Pakistan, what ever you may believe. One tale you get from USA Big Pharma is that the reason for the cheap USA made pills overseas is that the pharma copmpany "feels their pain" and wants to "help the poor" in these places. Balogney! Take the Philippine inhalers. A poor Filipino couldn't afford the US price of $75. But he wouldn't be able to afford $15 either, or even $5. Maybe five pesos. But the well off Pinoy who is the target market anyway is VERY RICH, he can afford the meds certainly more easily than the average guy here. Another example of the screwing that we get with globalism. But there is hope, for the average American is wising up and becoming aware of our many enemies within. Slagle