Educated patients have known for years that randomly buying their medications from websites they find on Google can be dangerous. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy recently surveyed online pharmacies and found that 97% of them aren’t safe for Americans to order their medication from. Additionally, the past two years has seen an influx of counterfeits into the United States as fake drug wholesalers have begun bombarding small clinics and physicians with direct sales tactics promising unrealistic discounts. Three separate shipments of a fake version of a cancer drug have been found in the United States in the last […]
Category: Prescription Drugs
Double Check, Don’t Double Up on Medicines Containing Acetaminophen
Acetaminophen is the most common drug ingredient in the U.S. and is found in more than 600 different prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines, including pain relievers, fever reducers, and sleep aids as well as cough, cold, and allergy medicines. It is safe and effective when used as directed, but taking more than directed is an overdose and can lead to liver damage. Research recently conducted by the National Alliance for Hispanic Health (the Alliance) found that more than half of Hispanic consumers are not aware of any health risks associated with taking too much acetaminophen, and do not check their medicine […]
Unregulated Drugs a Hazard to Poor and Elderly Patients
As children grow up, they learn an important lesson: when you are sick, taking medicine usually helps you feel better in a reasonably short time. That acquired knowledge has helped generations of kids suck down foul-tasting cough medicine and other remedies. In fact, “taking your medicine” has become cultural shorthand for doing something that may be unpleasant in the short run, but benefits one over the long term. This is certainly aided by the fact the United States has one of the safest drug supplies in the world; when you take a medication in America, you can count on it […]
A Bitter Pill to Swallow: Many Americans Can’t Afford Their Medicine
For the first time in decades, Americans are actually spending less on their medication That’s according to a recent study by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics which found the total spending on medicines fell 3.5 percent last year –from $329.2 billion in 2011 to $325.8 billion in 2012. The study attributes much of it to an encouraging trend: the declining use of brand-name drugs and the greater availability of less expensive generics. But it’s not all good news. The study’s authors say that the decrease spending on medications was driven also by consumers cutting back on health care overall – […]
Is that Drug Really Necessary?
A recent Boston Globe article described a large settlement a family won against Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Children’s Motrin. There’s an old adage, “All I know is what I read in the newspaper” and that is the case here. While it may sound like a windfall for the family, there was more to the story than just suing for—and winning—millions of dollars, and there is no happy ending nor winner. According to the article, when a little girl was seven years old her parents gave her Children’s Motrin for a fever. She apparently received three doses over 24 […]