The Canadian RX Drugs are Prescribed and Used More than Ever Before
The Canadian RX Drugs are Prescribed and Used More than Ever Before
The use of prescription and RX drugs in Canada has steadily increased year on year for over a decade. One very clear and obvious explanation is that the population is ageing, and the elderly are far more in need of prescription medication than younger generations.
A report published by a pharmaceutical company revealed that drug use in 2008 among Canadians was higher than in previous years. This report released in March of last year by global pharmaceutical company IMS Health evaluated the use of pharmaceuticals by tracking the number of prescriptions dispensed. Also in the report, was information to show that the unfavourable economic climate had not affected RX drug sales in 2008, but there had however been a drop in the purchases of brand name medicines. This showed that it is not the purchase of prescription drugs that is dropping, but that the number of generic prescription drug sales has been in fact increasing slowly.
Generic drugs are extremely popular from online Canadian pharmacies due to their reduced and unbeatable prices. The prices are pushed down because these are drugs where the patent has expired, meaning that other online pharmacies can produce these drugs and charge lower prices. The drugs are subject to the same laws as branded drugs and must follow the same safety guidelines as those issued by governing bodies. This means that all generic drugs must be of the same composition chemically as the original branded versions. They must also have the same therapeutic effects as the original branded versions.
The IMS report also confirmed that the drug categories with the highest number of prescriptions was cardiovascular medication and psychotherapeutic drugs including antidepressants drugs Both of these categories has seen an increase of over 7% on sales since 2007.
There has been a lot of bad press for Canadian RX and prescription drugs over the past decade and even more so in the past five years, however this seems to be a band wagon that thousands of people are jumping on. There is no evidence to say that there is any issue what so ever with prescription drugs, or to show that prescription drugs are causing problems in places such as Canada, where they are prescribed so often.