I believe Jim has hit the nail on the head here and in subsequent posts! Provincial edicts may end up stymieing sales to US border crossing buyers, but if any US proposals to allow suppliers from the US to purchase some drugs from Canada - it could end up increasing prices in Canada over the long run and probably fueled the rumors of shortages there.
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Presumably this is a result of the overall supply shortage for insulin mimetics (i.e. fast-acting and long-acting types).
Why do not diabetics use human insulin more? There is no purpose to the fast-acting insulins if oneâs diet is adequately low-carb â these all have much too short a time profile for dietary protein and cannot predictably compensate for dietary carbâs in any case.
Is there any benefit at all to the long-acting insulins for pump users? And why not stagger NPH every four hours for manual injections? And/or combine simultaneous injections of Regular and of NPH at bedtime and morning? I suspect this would work better than most long-acting insulins on the market to compensate for dawn phenomenon. This works perfectly for me, but I am not type 1 (I have ~ 40% beta-cell function).
All of the insulin mimetics, to me, seem a triumph of product marketing over function.
14 posts were split to a new topic: Regarding the claim I see in the media that insulin Regular entails too large a lag time, I donât buy into this at all
Yes, but also we (Canadians) have a government that just tells them they canât sell their insulins at stupid prices, and problem solved.
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And the US has a government that protects the monopolies, greed, corruption and unnecessary required middlemen and bureaucracy with a false excuse of fear mongering lack of patient care and safety.
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Before he retired Lechleiter raised prices to keep his stock price high. The article is from 2016.
I donât think the debate is about a 20% increase. The shouting would not be so loud if the price of $40 insulin went up 20% to $48 which is about the retail price currently paid in Canada. The cries are about the increase from $40 to a list price of over $500+ in the US for the same insulin that is manufactured in the same factory and sold for $48 in Canada vs $500+ in the US.
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And unless Lechleiter has a very unusual contract, his compensation is directly tied to share prices. So if jacking up insulin price leads to higher revenue, thus higher share price, then yes, the cost of insulin is directly related to his bloated bank account.
There has been no law passed anywhere in Canada preventing the sale of insulin to Americans. It is available over the counter to anyone who asks the pharmacist for it. Any limits on the amount purchasable are either due to the amount they have on hand or a company policy. We do not as yet have a national pharmacare plan so there are no national rules. Cost of my Novorapid, two packs of five is about fifty dollars. Eighty percent of the cost is covered by my husbands medical insurance to a maximum amount of three thousand dollars a year for all my medicines. Like most diabetics I also take a statin, blood pressure and beta blockers. As I also use the Libre sensor I get an extra thousand a year to cover that. Up until two years ago I lived in the UK and did not pay for any of my drugs, herein Canada I will pay 20 percent of the cost, plus a dispensing fee of 10.99, until I am sixty five and will then be eligible for the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan and I will pay exactly 1.20 cents for each covered prescription. Some drugs are not covered, like the Victoza, that my mother takes but even that only costs her around thirty dollars or so. Maybe we who live close to the border should develop an âunderground insulin railwayâ for our American fellow sufferers.
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I donât really care if there is a law, policy, discrimination, excuse or reason why US residents are currently unable to purchase insulin beyond an emergency supply in Quebec. This is not a company policy as all pharmacies, regardless of ownership in the Quebec towns bordering the US refuse to sell more than an emergency supply to US residents. When you call any pharmacy in that region and tell them you want to order 8-10 boxes of insulin, they ask you for your Name, telephone number and address. As soon as you give them your address, they say sorry, we can no longer sell more than an emergency supply (1 box) to a US resident.
I live in Massachusetts, only a 2 1/2 hour drive from the Canadian border and have never had an issue purchasing my insulin in Quebec in the past.
My solution, was to order my insulin by mail from another province, which I did and have received. My intent with this thread was not to start an argument as to why Quebec no longer sells insulin (more than and emergency supply) to US residents but to give fellow members a heads up not to drive to Quebec and expect to be able to pick up an unlimited supply.
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âŚbut do drive to Quebec for cheap beer (at least compared to puritan Ontario), the low drinking age of 18, and the best smoked meat, bagels and poutine in North America. Just not healthcare, donât go there for your health!
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