Hi. I’ve been ordering a drug I should take post prostate surgery from a Canadian pharmacy for almost three years. It is 1/3 or less the price that US pharmacies charge. Today I learned the US FDA seized my latest order; I received a notice in the mail from the FDA.
Is this something new or is it random? Is there some new push to interdict prescriptions? Should I give up on Canadian pharmacies?
Thanks in advance.
I don’t know why the FDA seized your drugs, but you should prepare for a drug war with Canada. We don’t want Americans buying up our drugs.
These guys didn’t seem to have any problem importing prescription drugs in person:
But that was more than a year ago. Things may have changed. Plus, as @Muffin noted above, Canada is concerned about domestic drug shortages because there is often an enormous price disparity with the US, prompting purchases from Canada. Even at the time of the above story, last spring, it prompted concern about insulin shortages in Canada because of US demand. It’s not clear, though, why the US FDA would care. It may just be that they have no jurisdiction over quality control, which is a really dumb excuse, IMO, especially considering some of the crap that they approve that is banned in other countries.
One reason for the FDA blocking shipment of Canadian drugs might be contamination.
"Earlier this year three brands collectively recalled dozens of lots of metformin in Canada due to concerns of “nitrosamine impurities.” That included Apotex Corp.'s extended release metformin as well as products from Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. and JAMP Pharma Corporation.
Not saying this is particularly a problem in Canadian drug manufacturing facilities compared to other countries (for one thing, I’d be a lot more confident about drugs from Canada as opposed to China or India), but it exists.
It’s not contamination. The FDA sent me a note saying the meds “lack adequate instructions for use” and the packaging lacks the label “Rx only”
Canada would have said “Sorry!” if it had blocked the shipment. Since it didn’t, it didn’t.
Did you tell them they were for your goat?