SAN FRANCISCO, July 7 (UPI) -- Every month Robert Evans, 66, makes the three-hour journey from Palm Springs, Calif., to Los Algodones, in Baja California, Mexico, a dusty border town that has become a bustling medical marketplace catering to American day-trippers.
Evans typically spends $18 for a month's worth of medicine to treat his glaucoma, and $20 for heartburn medication, at one of Los Algodones' 20-odd pharmacies. He also usually stops in for a margarita at a local cantina before he heads back home. All told, Evans said he saves nearly $190 per month in medical costs by shopping south of the border.
This practice, by Evans and thousands more U.S. seniors, is becoming more common. The primary reason: last year, the price of the 50 most-prescribed drugs for older Americans rose at twice the rate of inflation -- a staggering increase for retirees on fixed incomes. The cost-increase estimate was prepared by Families USA, a consumer health group in Washington, D.C.
Word of Mexico's medical bargains has traveled quickly among low-income seniors and has attracted the attention of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Federal rules allow Americans to import up to a three-month supply of prescriptions for their personal use each week -- with no limit of the number of times they can repeat the process over the course of a year.
Like Canadian pharmacies, Mexican drug stores often sell common prescription drugs at very low prices. Generic versions of brand name drugs are widely available and pharmaceutical companies sell to Mexico's less affluent buyers at prices well below what they price same drugs in the United States.
These rock-bottom prices come with more than a few drawbacks, however, William Hubbard, the FDA's senior associate commissioner, testified before the House Special Committee on Aging last month.
For example, Mexican drug manufacturing facilities, pharmacies and health care professionals are not subject to the same stringent safety and ethical standards required of their American counterparts. Also, although the FDA inspects American pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and tracks the safety of medicines from the factory to the pharmacy, the agency does not oversee quality-control for medicines made in Mexico.
Moreover, Mexican pharmacists often do not speak English and sometimes fail to communicate potentially dangerous drug interactions to customers, Hubbard told members of Congress. The State Department also warns that 25 percent of Mexican prescription drugs could be counterfeit or substandard.
For such reasons, the Alliance for Retired Americans, an advocacy group in Washington that claims to represent 3 million American seniors, has warned its members about trying to save money by purchasing drugs in Mexico.
"The safety and health of our members is our primary concern and we have serious concerns about the quality control of the drugs that are available in Mexico," ARA deputy director Ann Delory told United Press International. "We'd really rather that seniors did not have to leave the country to buy their prescription drugs at all."
Neither the FDA nor the ARA can cite any specific examples of American seniors encountering problems buying medications Mexico.
"We don't have any specific examples or an FDA report that we're basing our decision on," Delory said. "It's more that the potential for a problem is there and that's something that we just don't want to run the risk of with seniors who have chronic conditions to begin with."
One indication of deep resentment felt over the government's failure to establish a prescription drug benefit as part of the Medicare program is some seniors say they are more distrustful of the FDA's motives than they are of the quality of foreign-made medicines.
"I think the FDA ought to stop worrying about Mexico and investigate the price of prescription drugs in this country," said Evans, who manages a Palm Springs-based company that transports seniors to the border for medications.
The pharmaceutical lobby's influence on the federal decision making process probably is what drives the recent warning messages from Washington, argues Jan Sparrow, owner of Blue River Tours in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., which also offers monthly trips to Los Algodones.
"The reason we're in the same position we've always been in is because the pharmaceutical lobbyists are controlling this issue," Sparrow told UPI, adding neither she nor any of her customers have ever experienced any problems with their Mexican-made pharmaceuticals.
Customer satisfaction is reflected in the number of repeat customers flooding the border, Sparrow explained. One-half of Evans' customers are regulars and not one has ever reported a problem with a prescription, he added.
An April 2001 joint survey by U.S. Customs and the FDA counted 586 people buying 1,120 different prescription drugs at border towns from Texas to California in just a four-hour period. This practice is likely to continue unabated until Congress passes -- and President Bush signs -- the prescription drug benefit bill currently in a House-Senate conference committee. More and more medical travelers likely will hazard the trip to Mexico's burgeoning health care marketplace.
Despite the recent reports of progress, Delory said she thinks seniors should not count on prescription drug relief arriving from the government anytime soon.
"Unfortunately, it sounds like seniors are going to have to continue to go abroad for their medicines because none of the proposals that are now on the table provide for containing the costs of prescription drugs," she said.
