Canadian pharmacy: is this normal?

[Zebra]

Hello!

I find myself in need of guidance from our Canadian comrades or anyone who has purchased prescription medicine from a Canadian pharmacy.

I am one of those Americans who cannot afford a name brand drug price in the United States and my doctor suggested I try a Canadian Pharmacy off the list of Certified Canadian International Pharmacy (CIPA). See link below.

After doing some online research, I made a call to a particular pharmacy today to ask some questions.

Here are a few things that seem odd to me:

1. The pharmacy does not accept credit cards.

They only accept e-check (essentially access to your checking account, nope!), personal check, or international cashier's check. They want me to send them a photo of the check and then put the check in the mail.

This just seems so odd to me. Anyone have any experience with this?

2. They also want me to send them a photo of my driver's license/identification, which I guess makes sense, but only my side of the transaction will be secure. I have an encrypted email account for medical and financial stuff.

I asked the customer service rep if the email address she gave me was secure and of course she said yes, but ... I don't think it actually is.

3. I *think* she said I could send everything via fax, which is possibly more secure? I dunno.

I was on the phone with my American pharmacy/insurance company for 45 mins and the Canadian International Pharmacy for 30 mins and now I am totally fried and nonfunctional. I desperately need to lay down in the dark.

If anyone can address any of these questions it would be so helpful to me.

Thank you!
Z

weblink: https://www.cipa.com/cipa-safe-pharmacies

 

[Judee]

Lots of red flags with what you describe.

I actually think there are some Canadian pharmacies here in the states. I know I found one in Florida when I was looking for a niece who lives there. You could see if you have one somewhere near where you are. Hopefully one without questionable practices.

 

[linusbert]

Hello!

I find myself in need of guidance from our Canadian comrades or anyone who has purchased prescription medicine from a Canadian pharmacy.

I am one of those Americans who cannot afford a name brand drug price in the United States and my doctor suggested I try a Canadian Pharmacy off the list of Certified Canadian International Pharmacy (CIPA). See link below.

After doing some online research, I made a call to a particular pharmacy today to ask some questions.

Here are a few things that seem odd to me:

1. The pharmacy does not accept credit cards.

They only accept e-check (essentially access to your checking account, nope!), personal check, or international cashier's check. They want me to send them a photo of the check and then put the check in the mail.

This just seems so odd to me. Anyone have any experience with this?

2. They also want me to send them a photo of my driver's license/identification, which I guess makes sense, but only my side of the transaction will be secure. I have an encrypted email account for medical and financial stuff.

I asked the customer service rep if the email address she gave me was secure and of course she said yes, but ... I don't think it actually is.

3. I *think* she said I could send everything via fax, which is possibly more secure? I dunno.

I was on the phone with my American pharmacy/insurance company for 45 mins and the Canadian International Pharmacy for 30 mins and now I am totally fried and nonfunctional. I desperately need to lay down in the dark.

If anyone can address any of these questions it would be so helpful to me.

Thank you!
Z

weblink: https://www.cipa.com/cipa-safe-pharmacies

this could happen to you in any german store incl. pharmacies.
credit cards are not as widely accepted as in the US.

but instead of a Check you only have chance to pay with german debitcard or cash.

idk if fax is more secure. regular phone isnt. and fax runs over that line so i doubt it. but i really dont know, just guessing.
email in the early years was readable for everyone with network access, along the way.
nowadays you have at least server-to-server communication encrypted and also most providers allow client-to-server encryption (TLS). most email providers offer encrypted access, so its a matter what you did use for your email client.
so in general i would say even without client-to-client end2end email encryption like GPG , you still have client-to-server and server-to-server and server-to-client encrypted. that means the email service provider can read your email. but 3rd parties have a hard time to spy along the way.
of course if everyone used the offered encrypted server lines. (TLS).

check how to setup TLS in your email client. but as you probably have already GPG running i guess it already is.

 

[Jyoti]

I went through exactly the process you describe being advised to follow, @Zebra, to get my hands on some Ivabradine at a not-totally-insane price. It was weird and cumbersome, but the people on the pharmacy end were nice and all went well. For what it's worth, I used Northwest Pharmacy, which is on that CIPA list.

It was a while ago and, um, brain fog. But to the best of my recollection, I did exactly what you are being asked to do and while it took a few weeks to get the meds, they did arrive as promised with no security breaches en route.

Cumbersome, I thought, but the only viable way I found. The Ivabradine had too many side-effects for me, so it was a one-off, ordering from them.

Good luck with this.

 

[L'engle]

As a Canadian, the only time I looked into these 'Canadian pharmacies' it seems one can't actually buy from them in Canada, which is a red flag. They are somehow using the word 'Canada' and getting certified in a way where they still aren't allowed to distribute in Canada. Which doesn't speak highly of their standards or safety ratings. I would guess the companies are somehow registered as Canadian but nothing about the production or distribution is in Canada.

Real Canadian pharmacies are highly regulated, as are medical labs, clinics and other services.

Which isn't to say these overseas pharmacies aren't useful for some people, but I wouldn't expect any level of reliability, safety or quality from them.

 

[cheeseater]

Usually when I write a check at a store they want to see a drivers license, and they write down the DL number and probably look at the signature on the DL to see if it looks like my signature on the check. That does not sound odd.

Fax is definitely more secure, and fax is only way certain info can be relayed between medical offices if they are not on the same system. So if a Denver clinic with Medical group XYZ is asked to relay info to a (non related) Detroit clinic with medical group KLM they really can only do it by fax. Same way labs get orders from MD offices, unless the patient brings a hard copy. Something about patient confidentiality, so I think Fax would definitely be more secure.

 

[Zebra]

Hi, I'm circling back to this thread to let folks know that I did, finally, find a reputable online Canadian pharmacy that provides secure transactions.

I chose Canadian Pharmacy King, which sounds like a disreputable name, but I did my due diligence and I have been using them without a problem for at least a year.

First, the website has a patient portal. After registering and creating an account, any necessary documents, such as identification and the actual prescription can be scanned and safely uploaded to the portal. No dodgy emails or faxes.

Second, you can pay online with your credit card, so no wildly insecure e-checks or bank transfers required.

Third, you can choose exactly what medication you need. For me, it's name brand. You can also choose which country manufacturers the medication and where it ships from. For me, it's Canada x 2, because although the medication from India, etc., is cheaper, it is just not as effective, which is why I had to go this route in the first place.

After you place your order online, they do call you to confirm your order and basic information, which is a bit tiresome, but I'm guessing this is a safety check on their end.

Somewhere along the way, Canadian Pharmacy King changed hands, or merged with another organization, which was a bit off-putting the last time I called.

Calls are no longer answered by the delightfully polite folks in British Columbia, and prices have gone up by $20. Shipping may have increased as well.

Hope this is helpful to someone else in the future.