Canadian online pharmacy did brisk business with the USA patients at the turn of the millennium and thereafter in the early years of 21st century. The flooding orders from USA for the Canadian medicines clicked a turnover of $1 billion annually. US citizens made a beeline for Canadian drugs in spite of caution from Food and Drug Administration of US.

The question is why US citizens crave for Canadian drugs. The reason is simple: price of Canadian drugs are lower and quality is equally good. On the price front Canada scores one-upmanship over US because Canada, thanks to price caps imposed on patented drugs by Canadian quasi-judicial body, ‘The Patented Review Board.’ Another factor is direct advertising to consumers is allowed in Canada. This is further boosted by exchange rate difference between Canadian and US dollars. Canadian dollar is presently quoted 0.95 times the US dollars. All these factors contribute to lower drug prices in Canada than in US. Prices of few important drugs online both in Canada as well as US are given below for a price comparison. All prices are in USD

Drug Qnty CanadaDrugs.com Canada DrugStore.com USA Saving if purchased From Canada

Lipitor 10mg 90 188.5 256 $67.5

(Cholesterol Treatment)

Nitro-Dur patch 0.8 90 125.75 303.5 $177.75

(Angina Treatment)

Paxil 20mg 100 220.5 320 $99.5

(Depression treatment) 112.5 for 90 tabs generic variety 29 for 90 tab generic variety $ 83.5

Tamoxifen citrate 10 180 93 50 $43

Generic Version

(breast cancer treatment)

The above chart clearly represents the cause of US patients purchasing Canadian drugs. However beginning 2006 several factors started eroding the price advantage of Canadian drugs online. Changes in Medicare plan in US subsidized the cost of many drugs benefiting a lot of people. Coupled with this a rise in Canadian dollar parity also pushed up Canadian drug prices. It was also blamed that Canadian doctors are prescribing drugs to US citizens without examining them physically which is unethical in any sense. Canadian Online Pharmacy started taking a hit and turnover receded over a time. Business tapered off, but not lost altogether.

Present situation for the Canadian online pharmacy is that it is looking up again backed by a 20% erosion of Canadian dollar compared to US dollar. President Barrack Obama’s $3.5 trillion health care plan is also encouraging US buyers to purchase safe medicines from foreign countries and Canadian online pharmacy is likely to benefit most.