 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Canadian prescriptions gaining toehold
By MELIA BOWIE, Times Staff Writer
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Joseph Prizzi walked into Hometown Meds of Florida on Thursday with a prescription for 30 pills in his pocket and a promise to himself that he would not overpay. Met at the door by the shop's co-owner, Fred Stieber, he was ushered into an office and and began filling out a brief medical history. "I went to Walgreens, and I saw the girl look the price up on the computer," Prizzi said. "She was typing and then her face dropped. She said I don't want to tell you, I'll write it down." A 30-day supply of pills to combat a rare bone disorder would cost $498. That led Prizzi to Hometown Meds. Its price: $278. Prizzi's is a common problem that has spawned a booming nationwide market for cut-rate drugs from Canada. Entrepreneurs have been quick to capitalize, especially in Pasco County. Three companies have set up shop here in the past two months. The new businesses cater to people like Madelene and Harry Gregor, who on Thursday went to Canadas Discount Drugs in Holiday, which says its prices are 50 to 65 percent less than those available in local pharmacies. That's attractive to the Gregors, who paid $6,000 for prescriptions in 2001 -- before Harry had two major surgeries. He requires 10 different prescriptions. "We just have Social Security," Madelene Gregor said. "It's a lot of medications. You have to buy them. And you have to make your dollar stretch as much as it can." The business is easy to set up. Buy a storefront, some computers and establish a relationship with a Canadian pharmacy. Unlike the United States, Canada caps prescription prices. That means American consumers can save by buying drugs from there. Most do so via the Internet. Pasco's local storefronts cater to clients who might not be Internet savvy or are wary of giving out credit card information on the Web. "I don't like to go online; I just don't like it," Harry Gregor said. At Hometown Meds in Bayonet Point, "all you need is a doctor's prescription and a credit card," said 85-year-old Fred Stieber, who opened the location on March 3 after partnering with a Canadian pharmacist. "We fax the whole order to Canada and in 2 or 3 weeks you have the drugs at your house. UPS ships them." And so a market is born for startups like: Canadas, which opened on April 1 at 2415 Grand Blvd. in Holiday. It has already lured 75 customers. Hometown Meds was the first to open in Pasco, at 12342 U.S. 19. (It also has a store at 4936 Allen Road and State Run 54 in Zephyrhills and plans to expand to Bradenton and Tarpon Springs by May 1). The latest addition, RX of Canada, is set to open today a half-mile south of Community Hospital at 4738 Grand Blvd. Although importing drugs from a foreign country violates the law, enforcement has been lax. But the surge in cross-border sales led to a recent warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that those who "aid and abet" the sale of medicine from Canada could be found "criminally liable." Dave Trump, owner of Canadas Discount Drugs, was defiant. "Go ahead, you take me into court and tell me why I can't help these people," he said. Neither he nor any of the other Pasco operators have seen evidence of the FDA crackdown. The popularity of discount Canadian drug outlets has U.S. pharmacy officials worried. "From where we stand as pharmacists, this is a bad thing," said Michael Jackson, executive vice president of the Florida Pharmacy Association. "It's risky." The overriding issue is patient care, said Jackson: The shops lack governmental oversight and are unlicensed; there is questionable liability if the shipped drugs cause harm to patients. Counterfeit drugs could find their way across the border, he said. And there are no guarantees they are shipped or stored safely. Although low-cost prescriptions are enticing, Jackson said many of the companies set up to sell the drugs are profiteers, not professional pharmacists. None of the Pasco storefronts is run by a pharmacist. RX of Canada in New Port Richey is run from afar by Mark Chung, a professional soccer player with the Colorado Rapids of the MLS. His brother in Tampa will oversee the business which is a franchise of Oklahoma-based RX of Canada, a U.S. company that buys its medications from Canadian suppliers. For Chung, the opportunity to reduce drug costs for his grandmother, who was paying for pricey pain pills, and others was intriguing. "I was suddenly just interested in the whole thing," he said. When a friend and fellow athlete, Joe Max Moore, told him about RX of Canada -- the company Moore and his dad Carl founded -- Chung was hooked. Canadas Discount Drugs is owned and operated by Trump. He sold medical equipment in Pennsylvania for 17 years. Now he is affiliated with CanAmerica Drugs in Winnipeg, which fills his orders and pays Trump based on the number of prescriptions he ships to them. "But they don't own my company," he said. Hometown Meds is owned by Canadian pharmacist Paul Clark, who partners with U.S. residents to open branches throughout America. "It's basically like a traditional franchise agreement," he said. They're like drop-in centers. They're creating a face-to-face relationship for us." And it is a popular face in Bayonet Point. The one-month old operation is nearing its 500th customer and has already taken in $100,000. The Zephyrhills location opened in late March and sales figures were not yet available. Partners John Glass, 57, who worked in the cable industry, and Stieber, a retired financial analyst, take home a flat commission rate of just over 7 percent. Stieber goes out of his way to make his clients, most of whom are seniors, feel at ease. To that end, older people staff the small office inside Beacon Woods Plaza. Glass is the youngest; the others are over 65. Stieber, who turns 86 this month, is the most senior of the seniors. (A one-week-younger coworker is nicknamed "Junior.") Stieber is not worried by the growing number of competitors in Pasco. "It's survival of the fittest," he said. There is certainly a pent-up market of customers who are uninsured, are on fixed incomes or just don't want to overpay, the shop owners said. And there will be, until a viable drug plan is passed. If such a day should come, Stieber said, "then I'm going to pull the sign down and go sit in my rocking chair." -- Melia Bowie covers business in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6229, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6229. Her e-mail address is bowie@sptimes.com
.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||
