The empire strikes back

Hello Dr. Kevin!
First, Vioxx and Merck – ugh. Second, since you’re a native Torontonian (and I used to live there too but now down the 401 a bit) you understand Canada’s healthcare system. Do you know, given how overworked Canada’s doctors are (and I completely sympathise with them) if they are made aware of drug concerns or is it up to the physician to keep themselves abreast of every bit of news on every drug?

It seems to me the latter would be expecting too much of our doctors. But really I don’t know how Canada runs this drug monitoring thing. Today, I’ve written about a problem and my doctor is fantastic — love him to bits — but we have a major error and I’m concerned about how he’ll take my bringing it to his attention. This isn’t about casting blame but rather about the pharmaceutical companies not owning up to accurate info.

On the importation crisis happening, my disease requires a mast cell stabilizer which is not approved for use in the USA simply because the FDA feels there are enough competing similar drugs that should be fine for patients. The problem is that this drug is the best and the others in the USA don’t work for other patients with my disease. Nobody seems to be writing about this scenario and I’m sure there are other drugs people need which the FDA won’t approve simply to cater to their pharmaceutical companies. Anyway, Americans are importing that drug from Canada, Britain and Mexico and that has nothing to do with cost. It’s to save their lives. I wish someone would write about that angle of the importing mess.

Great blog. I’m glad to have found you.

Carrie
http://life_or_trauma.typepad.com/boo/