Comment
Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
While a range of consumer goods, from clothing to food, report the country of manufacture on their label, this is not the case for brand-name prescription medications. US drug marketers aren't required to disclose this information—and many don't—leaving patients whose health depends on these drugs in the dark about where their drug was made.And myriad supply-chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have only exacerbated concerns about how the lack of country-of-manufacture disclosure can affect drug safety, affordability, and availability, as well as national security.To demystify country of origin for brand-name prescription drugs and their active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and to debunk misinformation about the drug supply chain, this month, PharmacyChecker published the report, "Not Made in the USA: The Global Pharmaceutical Supply Chain and Prospects for Safe Drug Importation."PharmacyChecker was launched in 2003 to guide US patients to the most affordable drugs from licensed pharmacies around the world.The report's author, PharmacyChecker President Gabriel Levitt, with cowriter Lucia Mueller, vice president of operations and communications, identify country of manufacture and source of APIs for the top 100 brand-name prescription drugs by 2018 Medicare Part D expenditure. An analysis of the source of generic drugs was not included in the report. Most brand-name prescription drugs made abroadThe vast majority of brand-name prescription drugs sold in US pharmacies are made overseas and imported by their marketers. Starting about 20 years ago, to bypass the high markups on these drugs, many Americans—particularly those older than 65 years—began importing their prescription drugs at much lower cost over the internet and from Canada and other countries.PharmacyChecker found that most of the brand-name drugs and APIs in this report are made in other high-income countries with similarly strict standards as those in the United States. Of the 100 brand-name drugs, 32 were finished in the United
Add Comment