Erectile Dysfunction - Lifestyle Medication

For men who suffer from impotence or erectile dysfunction, the advent of Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and even Uprima for diebeties suffers, can be seen as bringing back a quality of life.

For them the news that Canada is Closing the Drug Store is shattering.

Responding to pressure from the apparently all-powerful pharmaceutical industry, Canada may take steps to limit prescription drug sales to U.S. customers. Over the past few years bus loads of "tourists" visit Canada to stock up on low price medications. Not just for Viagra but for many, often age related ailments.

The medications in Canada and through online pharmacies sell for up to 80% less than USA.

The practice of US citizens getting prescriptions filled in Canada is inefficient, unsustainable and open to abuse. It is also ludicrous that Americans, who fund an astounding amount of pharmaceutical research with their tax dollars, should have to look to Canada for reasonable drug prices.

Those prices are cheaper in places like Canada and Australia because overseas politicians have put price controls on them. In the United States, on the other hand, President Bush's Medicare drug plan specifically prohibited any attempt to negotiate lower drug prices for American seniors.

The pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable in the nation, by far. But any talk of reining in prices elicits doomsday screeching from industry lobbyists warning that lower prices will lead to the abandonment of important research into life-saving drugs.

That's so much self-serving hog wash. Drug companies spend far more on marketing and overhead than they do on research and development, which is heavily subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.

More and more, the drug industry is focusing on profitable "lifestyle" drugs like Viagra rather than life-saving breakthroughs. The vast majority of new drugs brought to market are variations on a theme - small alterations to existing drugs that offer little new benefit, but allow drug companies to file new patents and keep less-expensive generic drugs at bay.

If the FDA suceedes in implementing the drug companies self serving agenda and shuts off the supply to U.S. customers, maybe enough grassroots political pressure will build to counter the massive influx of campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry.

It will take tremendous pressure to generate real reform of how drug companies are regulated.
Mass-marketing of prescription drugs to consumers should be tightly controlled, if not banned. New patents should be awarded only for drugs that offer significant benefits over older versions.

None of this will happen until the public takes up the call and uses people power to overcome the pharmaceutical industry's cash in Washington, D.C.

Another answer is the use of online pharmacies to obtain brand and generic medications, as shown in extensive directories like DrugStoreBestBuys.com which list the reliable suppliers available at the lowest prices.