WARNING and comment

[nadinbrzezinski]

ok folks I went down on vacation to Mexico City, and I take a specific med. We noticed it wasn't doing what it should do so we went down to the pharmacy and bought the same thing. To put it mildly it worked. Now here is where it made me quite angry... folks the Mexican Metmorfin we bought was the generic, IMPORTED from Ontario Canada. It ran me the same amount of money as my deductible, or probably a little more.

Point is the same med in the states (if I had to pay fully for it) runs about 100 dollars.

So there you have it, the power of pharma.

Oh and there is a bad lot of metmorfin, not that the target pharmacist cared, but I will be calling the triage nurse on monday... perhaps the health department should get involved not that I am holding my breath

Oh and the vacation... it was great

[Lerkfish]

1. just making sure...are you saying the mexican verison worked and the US version did not?

the way you have it worded, it could be either way.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Correct, bad lot and all

it happens... and it was the Canadian version. We were chuckling as we noticed the lab of origin, made in Ontario Canada.

As a side story years ago I worked in EMS in Mexico and we had six months were we had to watch out for bad IV baga, two out of twlve were bad, aka the control at the factory was ahem, lacking... in the plastic bags, not the glass ones. Once the problem was corrected, it was corrected

[Richard D]

2. Medications are a lot cheaper in el Sur.

I've gotten things that cost 10.00 a pill up here for 2.00 or 3.00 a pill (or even much less) down there. They work fine too.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I know they are

(unless you are Mexican, peiople do die of not being able to afford their meds as well)

It was just a good example to call my congress critter come Monday. This was not only bought in Mexico, but was IMPORTED from Canada. And the price, was still low.

[Mojorabbit]

5. I have found the opposite

to be true for some of my meds. The generics don't work as well. I read somewhere that there is a wide lattitide in generic medicines. There needs to be very strict manafacturing standards instituted.
Here is one article on them
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3015266

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. My insurance company pays only for the generic

so I have no choice

I was comparing the effectiveness of an Ameircan generic with that of a CANADIAN generic, country of origin for the drug and all

[Mojorabbit]

7. I have to pay for my own

and they are expensive. Certain meds I do ok on generic. Some, the total opposite. It makes me crazy and it seems to me they should be exactly the same as the brand names as meds are not anything to fool around with.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Yes they are suposed to be the same

and bad lots do occur even in brand names... I have no idea what to tell you except that meds are overpriced