FDA's drug importation data is wrong

71 out of 100 Top-Prescribed Drugs Sold Inside the U.S. Are Imported

White Plains, NY — July 17, 2018 — Research by PharmacyChecker.com shows that 71% of top brand-name medications sold in U.S. pharmacies are imported, demonstrating that the FDA's public statements on manufacturing are incorrect. Since 2010, FDA leadership has stated that 40% of finished medications and 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used to make all finished pharmaceuticals sold in the U.S. are foreign made.

Last year, PharmacyChecker researchers looked at the top 20 most-prescribed, brand-name drugs (from IMS Health data). By checking labels and calling pharmaceutical companies, it was discovered that fourteen medications were made outside the U.S. They looked at the next 20 and found the same results. Intrigued at those findings, PharmacyChecker continued to investigate places of manufacture of the 100 most popular brand-name medications to find that 71% of them were foreign-made - much greater than the 40% the FDA cites. Additionally, those same medications are available at 77% less from PharmacyChecker-verified international online pharmacies.

In a Government Accountability Office report from 1998, FDA data is cited to inform the U.S. Congress that 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used to make medications sold domestically are foreign-made. Twelve years later, the FDA stated the same figure - 80% - in congressional testimony to communicate a vast increase in foreign-made APIs, yet the number was unchanged. It was again used in 2015.

"The FDA not only tells people it's not safe to buy medicines outside the country to save money, which is not true, but it apparently doesn't even know how much of our own drug supply is dependent on importation," says PharmacyChecker President, Gabriel Levitt. "Clearly, most of our so-called American medicines are not made in America and yet we have to pay multiple times the cost of the same drug sold in Canada and other countries. That's why millions of Americans choose to import lower-cost medication for their own use, even with the practice prohibited under most circumstances. Properly informed consumers stick to PharmacyChecker-verified international online pharmacies, which can help the uninsured and underinsured afford medicines that are out of reach locally."

PharmacyChecker analyzed brand-name drugs, but a potentially greater number of generic drugs sold in the U.S. are foreign-made as well. Generics accounted for about 89% of all medicines dispensed each year, with one country, India, responsible for the manufacture of 40% of generics sold in the U.S.

About PharmacyChecker

PharmacyChecker.com is the only independent company monitoring and verifying the credentials of international online pharmacies and publishing the prices at which drugs are available from these licensed pharmacies. PharmacyChecker was founded in 2002 by Tod Cooperman, M.D. to assist Americans searching online to save money on medication. PharmacyChecker's verifications and price comparisons have been referenced by AARP Magazine, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and others.