There are a number of ways to purchase your prescription medications abroad for fairly significant savings. This may not always be your best bet. And while the FDA and US drug companies warn that the drugs you purchase may be inferior or even counterfeit, if you purchase in a sophisticated country like Canada or Great Britain, you most likely will get what you expect.

With the burgeoning use of the internet to purchase drugs from Canada, you need to be careful when doing so. The savings can vary a great deal from site to site and drug to drug. And beware that the Canadian online pharmacies do not always tell you if there is a generic version available for less money. If you are willing to take a generic, first check with your local pharmacist or the AARP pharmacy site to see what is available. Examples below:

90 or 100-day supply of the following:

*NOTES ON TABLE: these prices were obtained online on April 22, 2003. Of interest - if you are taking zocor, for which there is no generic, you can save a bundle in Canada! In the US taking 40mg of Zocor daily would cost you $347 for three months, but if you ordered the 80mg tablets from Canada and split them in half, it would only cost you $96! On the other hand, the two websites I reviewed did NOT mention that there are generics available for Prozac, Zestril and Mevacor (or they charged the same price for generics)- and these generics turn out to be much cheaper in the US than the brand name drugs in Canada. So perhaps look for a Canadian pharmacy that sells generics, and check the AARP site to see if generics are available for the drugs you are taking. But for expensive meds for which there is no generic, you might consider looking overseas... And with these warnings and concerns in mind, in the Melbourne area you might check with Lee Hicks at Canadian Discount Rx, Inc., at 3020 W. New Haven Ave., 729-6880. He offers a service to facilitate purchasing medications from a reputable Canadian pharmacy. He will help you compare prices.

Of course, the FDA may clamp down on importing medicatons even for personal use, and the major drug companies are exerting considerable pressure on the Canadian pharmaceutical wholesalers not to sell to pharmacies that sell to US customers. If you can save the kind of money above, you might take a vacation to Canada or England - a year's worth of medicines may more than pay for the trip!