Saving Money on Prescription Drugs

Accessing Canadian Pharmacies

Prescription drugs can be very expensive. If you are taking a brand-name medication on a regular basis and it is too expensive for you, importing it from Canada might be a reasonable way to make it affordable. This website was developed to help you make decisions about saving money on your medications. It provides links to several Canadian pharmacies and offers some suggestions for when their use might be appropriate. It also provides information on the legal status of importing drugs from Canada.

These pages were developed in response to a resolution by San Francisco's Board of Supervisors. Our aim is to educate San Francisco seniors and increase their access to prescription drugs.

Before getting your prescription drugs from Canada, you should consider these points:

• If you have health insurance that covers prescription drugs, it probably will not apply to drugs bought from a Canadian pharmacy.
• There are other ways to save money on prescription drugs. In many cases, Canadian drugs are not the most affordable choice. Generic drugs are less expensive in the United States than they are in Canada.
• The FDA currently cautions against importing drugs from Canada. Be sure to read the legal page.
• Anyone can create a website that pretends to be a pharmacy. An increasing amount of counterfeit drugs are being sold on the Internet. The links on this site are to licensed Canadian pharmacies that have been inspected by the states of Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin. Additional links will be added as soon as is feasible.

For readers of a printed version of this page: If you don't have a computer with Internet access at home, they are available at most branches of the San Francisco Public Library. Ask your librarian if you need help with this website.