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Canadian Pharmacies to US: Drop Dead
Counting on Kerry to bring you cheap drugs? Better ask the Canadians first:
More than 30 Canadian internet pharmacies have decided not to accept bulk orders of prescription drugs from US states and municipalities.
Which isn't at all surprising to me, but it'll probably give the "cheap drugs from Canada!" crowd a nasty shock. Conspiracy theories involving neo-con cross-border threats, drug company greed, and evil canucks in 3... 2... 1...
I've seen this one coming for awhile now. Two reasons:
1 - We fund most of the drug research in the world. If drug companies start loosing money to Canadian imports, they'll jack the prices up there as well, which will put the Canucks out of business quickly. So, my suspicion is that the companies are putting the silent kabosh on this.
2 - Why deal in bulk when they can get the same business at a much more profitable price by dealing with the individuals?. Yes, they could get economies of scale, but only with capital investments, but that isn't a good long-term strategy (see #1 above).
"Prescription drug prices are significantly lower in Canada than the US, because of price controls and bulk buying by the 10 provinces."
Read: “Prescription drug prices are significantly lower in Canada than the US, because of subsidies that come out of provincial income taxes.”