Thread: Trustworthy pharmacists?

Originally Posted by dirtydog

whoop out percy

whoop out or whip out?

Percy sounds a bit elegant.
More of a leslie or clive, i would have thought.

I went to Bangkok Phuket Hospital recently with an infected cut.
Doctors fee = 1200 baht
Antibiotic course of pills =1600 baht.

Come back for a second course if it dosn't clear up said the Doc no need to see him - just go to the hospital pharmacy .

Needed more but it was pissing down with rain - didn't feel like riding bike to town- popped into my local pharmacy with the empty packet.

Identical imported pills - 780 baht !!!!!

^ 250 baht for a thai though

Ripoffs everyday, left and right.
I buy almost nothing here anymore. My wife knows what I want. I trust her and I send her to get it. One of the biggest negatives about living here.

Shameful absolute pettiness.

The sad thing is that I'm quite sure the woman trying to pass herself off as a professional to sell me advanced osteo-rhumatoid arthiritis cream wouldn't have given a flying fuck if using it caused me some kind of medical problem. All she could see was the random farang and the wallet in the farang's hand. She knows that she is untouchable, especially by a foreigner.

Originally Posted by Smeg

^ 250 baht for a thai though

Undoubtedly correct but still a saving on the BPH price !

BPH? A little light on this?

If you need a trustworthy Pharmacist I know many.
I have to say it helps if you are medically trained when talking to them or you might find you will pay over the mark.

I had one instance of a good honest pharmacist on Soi Buakao, Pattaya...

I went in and asked for 'Zovirax' which is a cold sore cream and the only brand name I could remember... Small tube was about 500 baht but the pharmacist pulled out another cream and said "Same thing, made in Thailand... 200 baht"...

So they aren't all bad.... You could always try asking what they would sell to a Thai person...

Originally Posted by good2bhappy

I have to say it helps if you are medically trained when talking to them or you might find you will pay over the mark.

yeah I tell my mechanic that I'm automobilelly trained, but he still rips me off, in fact today he wants $70 for 4 litres of oil!

Originally Posted by rawlins

I had one instance of a good honest pharmacist on Soi Buakao, Pattaya...

I went in and asked for 'Zovirax' which is a cold sore cream and the only brand name I could remember... Small tube was about 500 baht but the pharmacist pulled out another cream and said "Same thing, made in Thailand... 200 baht"...

So they aren't all bad.... You could always try asking what they would sell to a Thai person...

On the surface, perhaps. But dig deeper and you would have probably found out that she paid 400 baht for the imported one and 50 baht for the locally produced one.

Anyone know if there is a major fake drugs problem here as in China? I always try to use Boots, who are the only pharmacist I trust with not using fakes.

^.. lol... Possibly... here's me thinking she was doing me a good deed too...

Saved me 300 baht and did the trick...

Originally Posted by Smeg

Anyone know if there is a major fake drugs problem here as in China? I always try to use Boots, who are the only pharmacist I trust with not using fakes.

There is certainly a fake drugs problem, but it is difficult to tell how bad it is

any stats include those drugs which, although fake, are actually good generic drugs that are identical to the original version

Originally Posted by Happyman

Bangkok Phuket Hospital

Originally Posted by Texpat

BPH? A little light on this?

......

BBC NEWS | Health | Fake medicines 'a growing menace'

World Health Organization statistics indicate 30% of medicines supplied in developing countries are fake. In East European countries like Russia the proportion is 10%, while in wealthier areas like the UK it less than 1%.

Scary

Originally Posted by DrAndy

any stats include those drugs which, although fake, are actually good generic drugs that are identical to the original version

Are you sure about this?

More info

South-east Asia awash with fake drugs | World news | The Guardian
South-east Asia awash with fake drugs

· 20% of malaria deaths blamed on bogus cures
· Hi-tech counterfeiting racket based in China

• <LI class=byline>Ian MacKinnon, South-east Asia correspondent <LI class=publication>The Guardian,
• Thursday February 22 2007
• Article history

An "epidemic" of counterfeit therapeutic drugs is sweeping south-east Asia, costing hundreds of thousands of lives as victims take them under the mistaken belief that they are receiving vital treatment for their illnesses. A British doctor working in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, found that most of the anti-malarial medicines tested in a sample were sophisticated fakes, often displaying holograms on the packaging, originally aimed at making counterfeiting difficult.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 200,000 of the 1m malaria deaths each year would be prevented if all the drugs taken were genuine.
But the epidemic goes far beyond anti-malarials. Bogus drugs have been found across the spectrum of life-threatening diseases. Anti-retrovirals for HIV-Aids and medicine for tuberculosis, meningitis, typhoid, pneumonia and even avian flu have been the target for highly organised criminals.
Up to 50% of the drugs sold in Asia and Africa are fakes, in a trade estimated by the US Food and Drug Administration to be worth between $35bn and $44bn (£18.5bn-£23.1bn) annually. WHO maintains that 30% of the world's countries have no drug regulation, or a capacity that is barely functional.
The fear is not only that many people are dying needlessly, but that diseases will become resistant to treatments as parasites survive and mutate, because "sub-therapeutic" doses - ineffective amounts of the active ingredient - are sometimes used in the fake drugs to fool patients into thinking that the treatment is working.
Dr Paul Newton, of the Oxford University Centre for Tropical Medicine, working in Vientiane, and colleagues say the scale of the bogus anti-malarials and their sophistication point to production on an industrial scale by unscrupulous manufacturers. Experts maintain that the trade is based in China, a focus for all manner of counterfeiting.
In December, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, three senior Chinese officials were arrested on charges of taking bribes to approve drugs. The distribution networks mirror the old heroin networks, flowing to Thai distributors with financing and money-laundering arranged in Hong Kong.
"We make no apology for the use of the term manslaughter to describe this criminal lethal trade," Dr Newton said. "Some might call it murder. Somewhere, people are directing a highly technical and sophisticated criminal trade. [They] are making these fakes in the full knowledge that their ineffective product might kill people who would otherwise survive their malaria infection."
A particular target of the criminals is the new malaria wonder-drug, artemisinin, a chemically derived plant extract. The active ingredient, known as artesunate, has proved especially effective against malaria whereas older remedies such as chloroquine have long-ago failed as the parasite has become resistant.
Dr Newton and his team highlighted their discovery that the largest manufacturer of artesunates, the Chinese company Guilin Pharma, was a victim of the attacks by the bogus drug makers. Anti-forgery holograms and the firm's packaging were painstakingly reproduced, along with a logo only visible under ultra-violet light. In all, 12 different fake drugs were sold as the Guilin brand's artesunate pills. The team spotlighted the dangers of a loss of confidence in the cure. They cited the case of 23-year-old man in eastern Burma who was treated in hospital with artesunates labelled Guilin Pharma. He was transferred to several larger hospitals but died of cerebral malaria. The original hospital tested its batch of artesunate and found that the whole stock was fake. "The village committee, which had clear idea of what was responsible for the man's death, was so angered ... that they collected all the artesunate, fake and genuine, that they could find in local shops and destroyed it on a public bonfire," Dr Newton wrote.

Make a bit more sense.

Originally Posted by Camel Toe

I use Ranitadine for stomach acids. I can get them for 20B, 30B, 35B, 40B, or 50B

I pay 40-50 baht in any Udon pharmacy for them, picked up 15 strips for 17B a strip in a small Bangkok pharmacy the other day. Sometimes you get a bargain, sometimes you get fleeced.

My mum pays £10 in UK for a strip so even when we get ripped off we are a damned site cheaper than the cost back home!