Many Americans these days are having a tough time keeping up with their prescription drug bill. Some have hit the doughnut hole in their prescription coverage, while others have never been able to afford coverage to start with. Due to insurance coverage picking up the tab on our prescriptions drugs, we have never really stopped to think about why the price of our medications is much higher than anywhere else in the world. I have done a little research and found that it is not as much of a safety issue as the government would have you believe, but more of a financial issue.

The government would like you to believe that prescription medications from anywhere other than the United States are not safe, no matter where they are from. This is simply not true. Many other countries such as Canada and Great Britain have just as strict of safety regulations and high quality standards for their medications, the only difference is they pay much less for theirs.

The reason Canadians can afford their medications is because their government imposes price controls on their medications. This means that drug companies cannot charge more for a particular drug than the market dictates is fair. Whereas here in America, we allow drug companies have patents and periods of market exclusivity which allow drug companies to charge as much as they want for a particular drug.

The funny thing is, even though the government tries to maintain that safety is the reason that drug importation is frowned upon, even though there are many government programs that encourage purchasing drugs from foreign countries. The Senate voted 62 to 28 to allow Americans to buy drugs from Canada and Europe. The truth is drugs from overseas and Canada are not of any lesser quality, but American drug companies pay the government well to keep a monopoly in the American prescription drug market. It turns out the government is not as concerned about your safety, as they are about making money.

Don’t allow the government to scare you away from saving money on your prescription medication. Do your research and keep your money in your pocket. Order your medications from proven, safe, online pharmacies found only here at
NoPrescriptioneed.com.

Don’t waste any more time, sign up today.

Drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis is going to take a revenue hit this year after recently stopping production of their newest blood thinner drug. The decision comes after US regulators approved a generic rival to its Lovenox blood thinner.

Sanofi-Aventis recently released a statement saying its shares may decline as much as 4 percent at constant exchange rate. This is a much more bleak estimate than the one given earlier this year stating a increase in revenues of at least 5 to seven percent.

Losing market exclusivity is one of the main reasons that Sanofi-Aventis has been actively seeking to purchase Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Genzyme.

“Five or six of their top eight drugs are in the process of or will go generic this year and companies losing drugs are under more pressure to fill that gap,” a man with knowledge of the matter stated.

Sanofi-Aventis is the maker of other popular drugs like Actonel, Allegra, Nasacort and Plavix.

Sanofi better come up with some new drugs to fill the gap quickly, or the revenues will continue to fall.

Today Mylan announced that they had received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Anastrozole tablets, 1 mg, the generic version of AstraZeneca’s Arimidex, a treatment for early breast cancer.

According to IMS Health, Anastrozole tablets had sales in the US of approximately $917 million for the last year ending March 31, 2010 . The product is available for immediate shipment.

Pr Newswire Reported that,

Currently, Mylan has 136 ANDAs pending FDA approval representing $94 billion in annual brand sales, according to IMS Health. Forty-one of these pending ANDAs are potential first-to-file opportunities, representing $20.4 billion in annual brand sales, for the 12 months ending Dec. 31, 2009 according to IMS Health.

This should help those who are struggling to pay for the treatment. If you would like to save even more on Arimidex, join No Prescription Needed today!

GlaxoSmithKline  and Medivir announced today an exclusive agreement for the commercialization of a new over the counter cold sore cream. Xerclear is the new product that will contain acyclovir and hydrocortisone for non-prescription use in multiple markets, including 14 major European countries.

This should bolster Glaxo’s over the counter medicine business. According to reports,

Swedish-based Medivir will get up to 3 million euros ($4 million) in upfront and pre-launch milestone payments, as well as up to double-digit percentage royalties on sales.

The new combo was granted marketing approval in  in last October and is based on strong clinical data. Xerclear was given “a unique label, which differentiates it from other topical cold sore products currently on the market,” GSK says.

According to the Pharma Times,

The treatment, previously known as Lipsovir, will be distributed as part of GSK’s over-the-counter Zovirax (acyclovir) franchise in multiple markets, including Europe, Russia, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand but not North and South America, China, South Korea and Israel. The drugs giant will pay up to 3 million euros in upfront and pre-launch milestones and up to double-digit royalties.

Only time will tell if Xerclear will ever make it to market in the US.

A well known low-cost drug known improved diabetes symptoms was found in a Boston study being published today, and its success supports an entirely new way of understanding the disease.

The drug, called salsalate, is also being studied as a potential treatment for repeat heart attacks and to stall development of Type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes, currently affects over 20 million Americans, most commonly affecting those that gain a considerable amount of weight. Scientists know there is a connection between weight gain and diabetes but have had a hard time connecting the dots. Salsalate is known to have anti-inflammatory properties, results of original studies suggest that the extra pounds cause chronic inflammation, triggering a cascade of problems from diabetes to heart disease to eye troubles.

“We should all exercise and reduce our body weight, but if we fail to do that, this might be a good drug,’’ said Dr. Marc Y. Donath, a diabetes researcher and professor at University Hospital in Zurich.

Though chemically resembling aspirin, salsalate causes far fewer stomach problems and has none of the bleeding risks. It has been used for about 40 years to treat the joint pain of arthritis, with few known side effects, and sells for as little as 16 cents per pill here at NoPrescriptioNeeded.com.

The only drawback is the drug’s low cost might actually hurt its chances of reaching patients. Normally, big pharma tries to shut down things like this that they don’t stand to make much money on.

New research being done on the link between ADHD and diet has begun to unveil some interesting findings that may have parents trying to change up their child’s diet before seeking a prescription for Ridalin or Adderal.

According to MSN,

ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder in childhood, affecting from 5 to 7 percent of U.S. school-age children. Most parents and physicians treat ADHD with medication—in fact, the use of medication tripled worldwide between 1993 and 2003, with the United States prescribing more medication for ADHD than any other country. Yet some parents have taken a rigorous look at their child’s diet, as a substitute for or in conjunction with meds, in an effort to minimize symptoms and ultimately sidestep a dependency on drugs.

Medication can yeild much faster results which is preferred by many parents and teachers.

Clinical nutritionist Marcia Zimmerman, a former research scientist at Stanford University Medical Center and author of the book The ADD Nutrition Solution: A 30-Day Drug-Free Plan said, “It does improve behavior, it is easy, it is quick, but the problem is it doesn’t heal anything, and moreover, when a child has been on these meds for a period of time [they may] develop side effects and you have to use more drugs to relieve the side effects.”

There are many different diets to lesson the affects of ADHD such as the Feingold Method. The Feingold Method has sparked a little controversy with nutritionists because of its recommendation that you steer clear of select fruits that are high in natural salicylates. Another option is elimination diets, in which parents remove different foods from their child’s diet, and then reintroduce them one at a time to see how they affect mood and behavior.

Whatever path you choose to take, make sure that you talk the approach over with your doctor. Medication may be the best route to solving your child’s ADHD problem, but if you could remedy the problem naturally, Why not?

According to recent reports from the Food and Drug Administration, fake versions of GlaxoSmithKline’s drug Alli were found to have dangerously high levels of the prescription weight loss ingredient sibutramine.

Sibutramine is the main ingredient in the diet drug Meridia. Although with the right dosage sibutramine can be used safely, the amount of sibutramine found in the counterfeit Alli poses a serious health risk to some individuals.

Dr. Janet Woodcock, head of the FDA’s drug unit, told reporters

“A person taking the counterfeit Alli as directed would be exposed to twice the maximum prescription dose of sibutramine every day.”

Woodcock said even healthy people exposed to the counterfeit Alli pills could experience effects including palpitations, sleepiness, anxiety, nausea and slightly elevated blood pressure.

Fake version of the diet drug have been found for sale mainly at online auctions sites like eBay.

The FDA and GlaxoSmithKline are urging consumers to check any Alli recently purchased to make sure it is the real deal. The FDA said the counterfeit Alli has:

– An outer cardboard packaging missing a `”Lot`” code.

– An expiration date that includes the month, day, and year (“06162010″), while authentic Alli expiration date includes only the month and year (“05/12″).

– Packaging in a plastic bottle that has a slightly taller and wider cap with coarser ribbing than the genuine product.

– A plain foil inner safety seal under the plastic cap without any printed words. The authentic product seal is printed with “SEALED FOR YOUR PROTECTION.”

– Contains larger capsules with a white powder, instead of small white pellets.

Another chance for American Senators to make a real change that would quickly help Americans lower the cost of their health care came and went last week, when the Senate voted 51-48 to shoot down an amendment that would have allowed American citizens to get their prescription drugs from countries who actually have the the backbone to impose cost controls on the pharmaceutical industry.

In today’s political climate, rarely does any issue receive bi-partisan support, however the drug importation amendment did. The problem was that the amendment needed at least 60 votes to pass, which it did not receive.

But why didn’t the amendment pass? Couldn’t all Americans use a break on the cost of their everyday prescriptions like Plavix and Xenical?

The answer is simple, to protect the profits of the big pharmaceutical companies.

An article from Examiner.com explains why the amendment was voted down:

“Speculation is the pharmaceutical industry made a deal with the White House to commit 80 billion dollars over the next 10 years to health care reform. The deal was supposedly contingent upon Congress not asking for more cuts in their profits.”

The article wen on to say,

“There is only one simple reason why the pharmaceutical companies charge 50% or more in the United States than they do in other countries. It is because our government allows it. The never ending desire to allow corporations to make as much money as they can at the expense of the working class creates fertile ground for these extortionists to pad their bottom lines.

Millions of people currently buy their prescriptions from Mexico or Canada, as they try to save as much money as they can from an industry that tries to extract as much as possible from them before they die. How much could people have saved with the simple passage of this amendment, in spite of the backroom deal the drug makers have with the White House?”

I don’t think you should wait around for politicians to decide when you can save money, do you? Sign up to No Prescription Needed today and start saving on the prescription medications you need, now.

A new study released Sunday has again raised questions about the effectiveness of Merk and Co’s cholesterol drug Zetia and its sister drug Vytorin. In this most recent study, Zetia failed to shrink buildups in artery walls. It was compared to a newer drug, Niaspan, which did so significantly. Zetia users also suffered more heart attacks and other problems although the numbers of these events were too small to draw any conclusions.

Zetia “has been on the market for about seven years and we still haven’t proven that it improves clinical outcomes,” said Roger Blumenthal, preventive cardiology chief at Johns Hopkins University. The results will be “very influential” in getting more doctors to turn to Niaspan, he said.

Doctors say that the study results are not conclusive and that users should not stop taking there prescribed medication. In a report from Reuters, Dr. Paul Armstrong of the University of Alberta in Edmonton said he received an email from a patient early Monday morning asking if she should stop taking Zetia even though it was having the intended effect on her LDL levels.

Doctors say not to worry if the medicine is having its intended affects, but to be cautious if any side affects are experienced and don’t hesitate to contact your doctor for consultation.

The large American drug maker Abbott Laboratories is moving to close a deal today to purchase the prescription drug unit of the Belgian company Solvay for close to $6.6 billion in order to take sole possession of a shared cholesterol drug venture. The deal could possibly pay out an addition $440 million if the product meets certain sales goals from 2011 to 2013.

The deal will also give Abbott sole possession TriCor, which competes with Antara and Lofibra in the highly competitive cholesterol drug market. Last year TriCor had over $1.3 billion in sales.

In addition to TriCor, Abbott will also receive full ownership of Solvay’s drugs for hormone replacement, hypertension, as well as other neurological conditions.

According to the New York Times,

Pending health care legislation in Congress is not considered a deterrent for pharmaceutical acquisitions, because the drug makers are expected to do well in whatever emerges from Washington. The industry has a potentially winning political argument that its drugs prevent disease and save medical costs. And the industry stands to benefit from the addition of tens of millions of Americans to the ranks of the insured, under a health care overhaul.

Abbott’s patent on TriCor is set to expire soon, which means generic, less expensive versions of TriCor will be available. Abbott will then face the challenge of switching consumers over to the new drug Trilipix. This means that Abbott will throw all of it’s marketing behind Trilipix, and try and dupe consumers into buying a medication that is no more affective, yet much more expensive.