International Medications??

[FastLane051]

Are medications in different nations all marked and look the same?
Say if you lived in canada and moved to the US with medication, would the pharmacists here be able to tell what they are?

 

[Farmercyst]

Are medications in different nations all marked and look the same?
Say if you lived in canada and moved to the US with medication, would the pharmacists here be able to tell what they are?

It depends on the regulatory agency involved and what the company wants. A lot of meds go by different trade names outside of the country. There are ways of looking them up, but no guarantee that (insert drug name) here will be called by that name anywhere else.

 

[Hels2007]

Are medications in different nations all marked and look the same?

No. There are some medications that are, but as a rule, no.

Say if you lived in canada and moved to the US with medication, would the pharmacists here be able to tell what they are?

Depends. I wouldn't count on it.

 

[npage148]

Once a Canadian dropped off a RX for Epival at my NY pharmacy. He told us it was Depakote. Facts and Comparisons has a bunch of international names we used to verify

 

[Vitamin K]

Drugs are definitely not consistent between countries.

1) We have some drugs that others don't, and vice versa
2) Drugs can have different names in other countries (e.g. acetaminophen here is paracetamol in UK)
3) Approval criteria vary between our FDA and regulatory bodies in other countries

It's a pain when somebody comes to the US and needs a particular medication that you've never heard of...

 

[Pharmavixen]

Are medications in different nations all marked and look the same?
Say if you lived in canada and moved to the US with medication, would the pharmacists here be able to tell what they are?

No. Sometimes the drug name is the same but the product isn't. And the pills might look different even if they are the same.

Would make everybody's lives easier if all the drugs marketed in N. America looked the same, and had the same names. Why call it Procardia in the States, and Adalat in Canada?

 

[Storm90]

In Canada, Nexium is not the purple pill 🙂. Also, Lexapro is Cipralex here.