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CanDrug Hours – We are open on Veteran’s Day -
Thursday
November 11th
CanDrug will remain
open on Veteran Day.
Regular business hours: 9
– 5 PST Monday - Friday
CanDrug Hours – We are closed on Thanksgiving Day -Thursday November 25th
CanDrug will be
closed on Thanksgiving Day.
Have a happy and healthy holiday weekend from the
CanDrug team.
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Order your medications before
the holiday rush!
Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming soon.
This is a reminder for your new and refill orders as the mail delivery
service will be packed with parcels and packages.
It will take longer than our regular
delivery time for your medications.
Order
in advance to avoid the last minute rush.
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Bush's
position on flu vaccine called ironic - Canadian Press
TORONTO — When President George W. Bush
spoke of importing Canadian flu vaccine during Wednesday's election debate,
many in the U.S. public health community were struck by the irony of an administration
that slams the door on cheaper Canadian drugs, but looks north for help with
an
 embarrassing
vaccine shortage.
"It seemed ironic to many of us who
were watching that the president had kind of disparaged the importation of
Canadian (prescription) drugs but seemed to be interested in exploring the
possibility of importing Canadian vaccine," Dr. William Schaffner, a
member of the U.S. advisory committee on immunization practices, said in an
interview Thursday.
Schaffner and others took as hopeful
Bush's comment that the administration was looking into the possibility of
purchasing flu shots from Canada's
major influenza vaccine manufacturer, ID Biomedical of Vancouver.
The company has between one million and
1.5 million surplus doses it has offered to sell to American authorities who
have been scrambling since vaccine giant Chiron Corporation revealed it could
not provide the up to 48 million doses it had contracted to supply to the
U.S. market.
Their hopes may have been dampened later
in the day, though, when Tommy Thompson, the U.S.
secretary of health, said it was doubtful that vaccine from producers not
currently licensed in the United
States could be imported to help with this
year's massive shortage.
"It doesn't look promising,"
Thompson said in Washington.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
would not comment on any talks it might be having with ID Biomedical.
"FDA is not allowed to disclose
information about our discussions with companies about such matters,"
spokeswoman Lenore Gelb said in an e-mailed response to an interview request.
But an ID Biomedical executive confirmed
the FDA hasn't asked to see safety data for the vaccine. Any serious
discussions on licensing the vaccine would require the sharing of such
information.
"Frankly, we are not there yet. We
are really in the process of offering what we could offer," said Michele
Roy, director of corporate communications.
Still, Bush's words gave Schaffner and
others cause for hope as they try to cope with the nightmare of facing flu
season with half the needed doses of vaccine.
"It gives us some guarded optimism
that perhaps some vaccine can be imported, which is something that we would
strongly support," said Schaffner, chair of the department of preventive
medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville,
Tenn.
"The shortage, of course, has
stimulated a great desire to receive vaccine. And so any additional vaccine
would be a little bit of help. It won't be a total solution by any means, but
anything helps."
If Schaffner and his friends in public
health were chuckling over the apparent contradiction in U.S. policy towards drug imports from Canada,
others weren't amused.
"They've been disparaging the
Canadian drug system, saying how it's a buyer beware situation, completely
unsafe, can't guarantee the safety," said David MacKay, executive
director of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association. "Then the
moment that they need to go to Canada to find our flu vaccines,
all of a sudden, magically, things are safe."
The association represents Internet
pharmacies that have earned the ire of the U.S. administration by shipping
cheaper Canadian prescription drugs to American consumers.
"It's absolutely ironic and
ludicrous to think that (U.S.
regulators) can assure safety for flu vaccines ... but they won't do it for
life-saving Lipitor (a cholesterol-lowering statin) as well," MacKay
said.
"What's the difference between flu
vaccine and Lipitor?"
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STUDY: Health costs rising faster than incomes –
14.3 million Americans spend more than one-fourth of
earnings on health care
By William M. Welch - USA
Today
WASHINGTON -- Health
insurance premiums paid by U.S.
workers have risen nearly three times faster than average earnings since
2000, eroding the income of average Americans, a study based on federal data
shows.
Premium costs for private health
insurance coverage are projected to have grown 35.9% from 2000 through the
end of 2004. Average individual earnings grew 12.4%, the study found.
The findings are from an analysis conducted
by the Lewin Group, a private health economics consulting firm, for Families
USA, a consumer-oriented health advocacy group that has supported Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry's health care proposals. The findings are
similar to those of other non-partisan groups, such as the Kaiser Family
Foundation, and government agencies, including the Commerce Department.
The study, which is being released
today, found that as health premiums consume a growing share of earnings,
more Americans are spending a major portion of their annual incomes on health
care. During the period studied, the number of Americans whose health care
costs exceed one-fourth of their earnings rose to 14.3 million from 11.6
million, the study concludes.
Lewin used its computer economic models
of the U.S.
health care system to analyze data from the Census Bureau, the Labor
Department and federal health care agencies.
The study was conducted in an attempt to
pose and answer a version of President Reagan's memorable 1980 campaign
question: “Are you better off now than four years ago?” The findings are
certain to be used by Democrats to argue that average Americans have fallen
behind economically under President Bush's administration and that any
benefits Bush's tax cuts delivered to working families have been lost.
"These grim findings explain why
health care costs and coverage have become a top-priority concern for America's
families over the past four years," the Families USA report says.
Key points made by the study:
In 26
States, worker’s premium costs rose by more than 40 percent. The average premium amount paid by workers
for family coverage rose from $1,433 to $1,947.
The
share of health premiums paid by employers also rose, but at a slightly
smaller rate, 31.8 percent. The share
of employer-paid premium for family coverage went from $5,595 to $7,373.
Of the 14.3 million Americans younger
than 65 whose healthcare costs totaled more than one-quarter of their
earnings in 2004, the study found, a majority of those had health insurance
coverage. The number of insured
Americans facing healthcare costs in excess of 25% of their earnings rose
from 8.4 million to 10.7 million during the period, it said.
The report said overall increases in healthcare
costs including payments to hospitals and doctors and the cost of
prescription drugs, are the main forces driving the
rise in private insurance premiums. But
it said the rising number of Americans without health insurance is a
contributing factor, because costs of treating the uninsured who are not covered by government programs are passed
along to others.
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