Jun 8 2006, 11:30 AM EST
News source: Business Wire
As concern about deadly bird flu grows and the medicine to treat it becomes harder to find in the U.S., many Americans are going to Tijuana to buy Tamiflu, according to the Medicine Store pharmacy chain."For the past month, we have had an abundant supply of Tamiflu and are selling the FDA-recommended 10-pill dosage for $58, versus about $100 in the United States," said Mario Zamudio, Medicine Store manager.
Tamiflu, the main FDA-approved prescription drug for treating the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, is produced by Swiss-based Roche labs. It became available in Tijuana about a month ago and many Americans have been crossing the border and easily buying it, Zamudio said.
The U.S. government has been stockpiling Tamiflu in the event of a bird flu outbreak there and that has made the drug harder to obtain in that country, Zamudio said.
According to the official www.pandemicflu.gov website, the U.S. government expects to have sufficient supply of Tamiflu available by the end of 2008 to treat 25 percent of the population in case of an epidemic.
"But many people want to have their own supply on hand to treat themselves, their family and their friends if an outbreak occurs," said Elba Orozco, sales manager of Drug Discounters.
"U.S. customers frequently were asking us for Tamiflu, but it was only about a month ago that Roche was able to make supplies available to us," Orozco said.
The Tamiflu available in Tijuana is the same strength and quality of that in the U.S.
The Mexican government keeps drug prices in that country low so more people can afford them. That's why Americans have gone to Mexico for decades to buy prescription drugs at 30 to 80 percent savings, said Gerardo Rosales of Discount Pharmacy.
Now, Americans also are going to Mexico to buy Tamiflu because of growing concern about bird flu, plus the supply and price issues in the United States.
The World Health Organization in late May reported 124 deaths from bird flu, in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It was investigating the first possible spread of the influenza from human to human, according to the government web site.
No bird flu cases have been reported in North America but there is concern that it could spread here. Newsweek did a cover story on bird flu in 2005 and CNN a major report this week. It was the subject of an ABC movie of the week this month.
All pharmacies mentioned in this article are located on the famous Revolucion Avenue in Tijuana. Information is available by calling the Medicine Store from the U.S. at 619-955-1309.
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