More than thirty years ago, while travelling in Thailand, I overheard several elderly couples discussing their travels in Asia. Access to prescription medications was a major issue. At the time, what registered in my mind was “these people are old”. Now that I am “old”, in my 60’s, I have new appreciation for their concerns.
When we decided to move overseas access to medications was a concern. I spent much time on the internet checking out which prescription medications were available, how would I pay for them (insurance, Medicare), and how would I actually get the meds (by mail, or from local pharmacies or chemists).
We left the United States with an ample supply of medications. We determined our insurance would cover us in Malaysia. At visit my most recent visit with our Malaysian physician I discussed prescription medications. Almost all my medications were available, but a common older medication was not in the Malaysia formulary. One of Liz’s medication was expensive and another (a combination of two generic drugs ) was not available at all.
When we mentioned to our physician that we were travelling to India, the preverbal light came on. He said, everything is available in India and they are cheap. Having heard horror stories of fake drugs in India, we contacted Indian friends. The recommendation came back to us, Apollo Pharmacies is a reliable source and they have over 1,000 stores throughout India.
On our first day in Chennai, I located a nearby Apollo pharmacy.
It was a small shop with several helpful pharmacists to assist. We poured over their formulary book, located local sources for the medications and placed the order. The next day a phone call came, one drug us not available and dosage amounts were not exact. A quick trip to the pharmacy determined one drug was not available; however, this is not an issue as the drug is readily available in Malaysia at an attractive price.
On Christmas Eve afternoon, we picked up the medications. Most medications come is blister packs, which protect the meds from environmental contamination, but cause lots of extraneous waste. The medications were purchased at a substantial discount from our deductable price in the US and were manufactured by the same companies. There is no accounting for actually how much these meds would cost in an open market in the United States.
The pharmacist pointed to one medication and asked how much that would cost in the United States, when I answered it caused quite a commotion among both the staff and customers. .
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