Saturday, January 27, 2007

Online Pharmacy Drugs vs. Your Local Drug Store

The major difference between both these is form in which the drugs are available. A local drug store gives you the easy availability but within a time during a day, you can make purchase through online pharmacy drugs without giving a look to your watch. A number of times, it has been observed that the usage of online pharmacy drugs far exceed the well-known advantages it has. As such, knowing advantages of online pharmacy drugs would be a revelation of sort.

The following are some of the advantages of it –

•Easy availability of a drug
•Delivery of the drug at the doorstep
•A number of such stores hand out online prescriptions which are alternative to prescription from a doctor and comes at no cost
•Flexibility in terms of the timing to order and buy a drug
•Stiff competition amongst the online pharmacies also helps in minimising the price of a drug.
•One can compare price list of a number of such online pharmacy drugs stores before buying.
•One can order and buy from the convenience of home or office
•Simple process to avail the drug i.e. one just needs to put in credit card information and shipping address to place an order for a particular drug through such sources.
•Privacy of not letting others know on what kind of disease you are is suffering from.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

What do you mean by the term Pharmacy

Pharmacy is a transitional field between health sciences and chemical sciences and a profession charged with ensuring the safe use of medication. Traditionally, pharmacists have compounded and dispensed medications on the orders of physicians. More recently, pharmacy has come to include other services related to patient care including clinical practice, medication review, and drug information. Some of these new pharmaceutical roles are now mandated by law in various legislatures. Pharmacists, therefore, are drug therapy experts, and the primary health professionals who optimise medication management to produce positive health-outcomes.

The symbols most commonly associated with pharmacy are the mortar and pestle and the (recipere) character. Pharmacy organisations often employ other elements, such as the Bowl of Hygieia, conical measures, and caduceuses in their logos. Other symbols are common in different countries such as the green Greek cross in France and the United Kingdom, the increasingly-rare Gaper in The Netherlands, and a red stylised letter A in Germany and Austria, Apotheke being the German word for pharmacy

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Pharmacy Drugs

Canadian pharmacies supply safe and reasonably priced prescription drugs. About 50 million people in US have insufficient medical cover. Expenses towards prescription medication are much higher in US than most countries in the world and could be unaffordable in spite of medical coverage. At present, millions of Americans tend to purchase prescription drugs online from pharmacists based in Canada, especially elderly US citizens.

Drug costs in the US could be reduced by importing cheaper medicines or by direct controls. Companies are required to maximize profits to facilitate availability of adequate funds for research and development. It would cause losses in billions of dollars to pharmaceutical industry and thus curb the ability of companies to invest in pharmaceutical research, if imports are allowed.

However, patients purchasing drugs from Canada may not get the same brands as what they get in US. Some patients find a generic drug that is accepted for use only in Canada. In such cases, it is necessary and preferable as well to buy FDA approved generic drugs in US. Canada is a small country and cannot supply all the prescription requirements of Americans. There have been shortages created in their own country owing to a bustling illegal cross-border drug business. It is expected that companies in Canada will limit their supplies in the near future.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

PHARMACY: GENERIC DRUGS




A generic drug
is a drug which is bioequivalent to a brand name drug with respect to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties. These drugs are usually sold at a lower price than the brand name drug. Generic medicines must contain the same active ingredient at the same strength as the "innovator" brand, be bioequivalent, and are required to meet the same pharmacopoeial requirements for the preparation.

What are generic drugs?

Generic drugs (generics for short) are medications that contain the same active ingredients in the same concentration as their name brand equivalents but are sold under their chemical names. Generics are usually made available after the patents expire on the namebrand drugs that treat the same conditions

Generic drugs are safe, effective chemical equivalents to name brand drugs, but cost much less. Generic drugs are only approved by the FDA after it is satisfied that they are safe and therapeutically equivalent to their name brand versions. As part of our mission to bring a better quality of life to more people, Wal -Mart is committed to lowering healthcare costs by expanding the availability of low cost generic drugs

When can a generic drug be produced?

Generic drugs can be legally produced for drugs where:
          (1)The patent has expired.
          (2)The generic company certifies the brand company's patents are either              invalid,unenforceable or will not be infringed..
          (3) for drugs which have never held patents
          (4) in countries where a patent(s) is/are not in force.

The expiration of a patent removes the monopoly of the patent holder on drug sales licensing. It is also becoming popular for the large pharmaceutical companies to preempt the expiry of their patent by producing their own generic product, or license their own product to be branded by generic companies. Thus, in some cases, the "generic" product is actually the brand product but inside a different box.

Are generics really safe?


Yes. The FDA requires that generic drugs have the same active ingredients with the same strength, purity and stability as name brand equivalents

Why are generics less expensive?


The makers of brand name drugs incur high costs from the research and development phase of creating new drugs. Marketing these new drugs also costs money. Subsequently, the cost of these drugs is higher. Generic drugs are usually created and marketed after the patent on the name brand runs out. There are much lower research and development costs for generic drugs, so the cost for consumers is much lower.