uncertainty
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Before I drone on with my long story, I'll clarify this: I do not work for, nor am I affiliated with, nor do I advocate that anyone engage in business with canadapharmacyonline.com, 4rx.com, or any online pharmacy. My only association with them is as a customer (for personal consumption only) and I am legally prescribed to finasteride.
This thread is dedicated to the skeptics of purchasing online, generic Propecia from overseas. Namely, this thread will address questions regarding Finpecia manufactured by Cipla in India. I don't expect you to take my word for anything. I will provide all the links/reasons so that you can judge for yourself. This thread exists because I realize how valuable it would have been to me if I had something like this when I wasn't sure about Finpecia.
Let's begin by asking the most basic question of whether Cipla exists and is actually a pharmaceutical company in India. Despite Cipla's website appearing professional...
http://www.cipla.com/
...it also has a Wikipedia entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipla
There are countless news articles written about them that can be found through Google News:
http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f ... en&q=cipla
If that's not enough, Merck's official website mentions Cipla:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=c ... Amerck.com
So, yes; there truly is a pharmaceutical company in India called Cipla.
My next question was what information I can find about Finpecia straight from the source. On Cipla's official website, Finpecia is listed as 1mg Finasteride tablets that come in blister packs of 10:
http://www.cipla.com/ourproducts/productlist/f.htm
At that point, I was convinced that there really is a pharmaceutical company in India who manufacters a 1mg finasteride product called Finpecia. My next questions was whether I could find a trustworthy, online place to purchase them from.
I began by looking at the Wikipedia entry that has a list of pharmacies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pharmacies
The majority of the ones on that list were mainstream pharmacies that don't mail generic Propecia. The one called canadapharmacyonline.com appealed to me for two reasons. The first is that it implied I could order online. The second reason is that the above Wikipedia entry said this:
OK. This raised the question of what evidence there is of a CIPA and whether their approval means anything. There is a Wikipedia entry for them here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_I ... ssociation
The website CanadaPharmacyOnline.com also has a phone number and an address. Also, it required a prescription. (I do have a legal prescription to Propecia.) To further verify the credibility of the phone number, I decided to call the phone number and make sure a live person picks up. They did. This was another good sign. Next, I started looking for other professional websites that verify online pharmacies. That's when I found legitscript.com. Now, note that legitscript.com does not approve of any pharmacy whatsoever who distributes real, authentic Finpecia from Cipla because Finpecia is not approved for sale in the United States. Therefore, mere disapproval means absolutely nothing if your intent is to buy authentic Finpecia. What's interesting about them is that they sometimes tell you other bits of information. I looked up canadapharmacyonline.com and found this:
The above quote informed me that CanadaPharmacyOnline.com is believed to be selling unapproved generics. This is what I wanted, of course: an unapproved generic (Finpecia)! Legitscript.com stated (in that quote) it's CanDrug affiliated, so I Googled for "candrug." I found candrug.com. I also did a whois query on candrug.com here:
http://www.whois.net/whois/candrug.com
The administrative contact had the domain canadapharmacyonline.com in it, confirming that canadapharmacyonline.com really is affiliated with candrug. I looked at candrug.com and noticed it claims to be a part of the International Pharmacy Association of British Columbia. (You can verify this by visiting candrug.com.) The website for the International Pharmacy Association of British Columbia is here:
http://www.ipabc.ca/
If you browse that website, it appears professional and actally links back to candrug.com on this web page:
http://www.ipabc.ca/patient_info.html
The FAQ was a comforting read; I was convinced enough to try canadapharmacyonline.com and I ordered 100 tablets of Finpecia. Pictures of the product (e.g. blister packs) are displayed in a Flickr photo gallery that I link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hairlosspi ... 604629787/
That was satisfactory enough to hold me over until I researched other online pharmacies. I still wanted to see a lab report and check for lower prices. I found a person on the following forum who claimed to order 1mg tablets of finasteride from 4rx.com and his were manufactured by GenPharma:
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/mess ... adid=80934
Here is a direct link to the apparent lab report itself:
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/atta ... &forumid=1
The apparent lab report says "Toxicology Associates inc." and I decided to call them. I only asked if they are able to offer a service testing what I suspect to be generic Propecia from India. They said yes. I did not actually send a tablet in. I asked to confirm the legitimacy of the laboratory. Also, their website is here:
http://www.toxicologyassociates.com/
Next, I decided it would be just a bit more persuasive if I ordered from 4rx.com myself and had a tablet tested from a totally separate laboratory. I specifically requested tablets manufactured by Cipla (because the Wikipedia entry for Cipla states that they had manufacturing plants approved by the FDA). Before ordering, I Googled for a coupon code and found the following website:
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/4rx.com
The coupon code "21percentoff" worked to get 21% off. While on 4rx.com, I noticed a couple things. They offer express shipping and canadapharmacyonline.com did not. 4rx.com has live chat 24-7. And interestingly, they claim to give such low prices because they buy straight from the source (and my package did come from India). Pictures of the product (e.g. blister packs and envelope) are displayed in a Flickr photo gallery that I link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hairlosspi ... 605105435/
I sent 1 tablet to Drug Detection Laboratories, Inc (drugdetection.net, who is FDA-approved and I found through ecstasydata.org). The lab result is displayed below.
http://www.ecstasydata.org/view.php?id=2166
If you do not understand the lab results displayed on that page, good clarification can be found in the 5th post of the following forum thread.
viewtopic.php?f=61&t=66321
Perhaps the Finpecia skeptic still doesn't know if Cipla manufactures trustworthy tablets because the FDA did not approve it. Let me add (for others who I've seen wonder this in threads) that Health Canada did not approve it either. This can be shown by visiting the following web page on Health Canada's website.
http://webprod.hc-sc.gc.ca/dpd-bdpp/index-eng.jsp
The Wikipedia entry for Cipla states that there were manufacturing plants at Cipla approved by the FDA (for other drugs, which I do consider important, and for all I know they're the same plants used to manufacture Finpecia). My opinion is that trying to attain a prescription for Proscar and then purchasing a pill cutter at the local pharmacy seems wisest.
This thread is dedicated to the skeptics of purchasing online, generic Propecia from overseas. Namely, this thread will address questions regarding Finpecia manufactured by Cipla in India. I don't expect you to take my word for anything. I will provide all the links/reasons so that you can judge for yourself. This thread exists because I realize how valuable it would have been to me if I had something like this when I wasn't sure about Finpecia.
Let's begin by asking the most basic question of whether Cipla exists and is actually a pharmaceutical company in India. Despite Cipla's website appearing professional...
http://www.cipla.com/
...it also has a Wikipedia entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipla
There are countless news articles written about them that can be found through Google News:
http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f ... en&q=cipla
If that's not enough, Merck's official website mentions Cipla:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=c ... Amerck.com
So, yes; there truly is a pharmaceutical company in India called Cipla.
My next question was what information I can find about Finpecia straight from the source. On Cipla's official website, Finpecia is listed as 1mg Finasteride tablets that come in blister packs of 10:
http://www.cipla.com/ourproducts/productlist/f.htm
At that point, I was convinced that there really is a pharmaceutical company in India who manufacters a 1mg finasteride product called Finpecia. My next questions was whether I could find a trustworthy, online place to purchase them from.
I began by looking at the Wikipedia entry that has a list of pharmacies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pharmacies
The majority of the ones on that list were mainstream pharmacies that don't mail generic Propecia. The one called canadapharmacyonline.com appealed to me for two reasons. The first is that it implied I could order online. The second reason is that the above Wikipedia entry said this:
OK. This raised the question of what evidence there is of a CIPA and whether their approval means anything. There is a Wikipedia entry for them here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_I ... ssociation
The website CanadaPharmacyOnline.com also has a phone number and an address. Also, it required a prescription. (I do have a legal prescription to Propecia.) To further verify the credibility of the phone number, I decided to call the phone number and make sure a live person picks up. They did. This was another good sign. Next, I started looking for other professional websites that verify online pharmacies. That's when I found legitscript.com. Now, note that legitscript.com does not approve of any pharmacy whatsoever who distributes real, authentic Finpecia from Cipla because Finpecia is not approved for sale in the United States. Therefore, mere disapproval means absolutely nothing if your intent is to buy authentic Finpecia. What's interesting about them is that they sometimes tell you other bits of information. I looked up canadapharmacyonline.com and found this:
The above quote informed me that CanadaPharmacyOnline.com is believed to be selling unapproved generics. This is what I wanted, of course: an unapproved generic (Finpecia)! Legitscript.com stated (in that quote) it's CanDrug affiliated, so I Googled for "candrug." I found candrug.com. I also did a whois query on candrug.com here:
http://www.whois.net/whois/candrug.com
The administrative contact had the domain canadapharmacyonline.com in it, confirming that canadapharmacyonline.com really is affiliated with candrug. I looked at candrug.com and noticed it claims to be a part of the International Pharmacy Association of British Columbia. (You can verify this by visiting candrug.com.) The website for the International Pharmacy Association of British Columbia is here:
http://www.ipabc.ca/
If you browse that website, it appears professional and actally links back to candrug.com on this web page:
http://www.ipabc.ca/patient_info.html
The FAQ was a comforting read; I was convinced enough to try canadapharmacyonline.com and I ordered 100 tablets of Finpecia. Pictures of the product (e.g. blister packs) are displayed in a Flickr photo gallery that I link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hairlosspi ... 604629787/
That was satisfactory enough to hold me over until I researched other online pharmacies. I still wanted to see a lab report and check for lower prices. I found a person on the following forum who claimed to order 1mg tablets of finasteride from 4rx.com and his were manufactured by GenPharma:
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/mess ... adid=80934
Here is a direct link to the apparent lab report itself:
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/atta ... &forumid=1
The apparent lab report says "Toxicology Associates inc." and I decided to call them. I only asked if they are able to offer a service testing what I suspect to be generic Propecia from India. They said yes. I did not actually send a tablet in. I asked to confirm the legitimacy of the laboratory. Also, their website is here:
http://www.toxicologyassociates.com/
Next, I decided it would be just a bit more persuasive if I ordered from 4rx.com myself and had a tablet tested from a totally separate laboratory. I specifically requested tablets manufactured by Cipla (because the Wikipedia entry for Cipla states that they had manufacturing plants approved by the FDA). Before ordering, I Googled for a coupon code and found the following website:
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/4rx.com
The coupon code "21percentoff" worked to get 21% off. While on 4rx.com, I noticed a couple things. They offer express shipping and canadapharmacyonline.com did not. 4rx.com has live chat 24-7. And interestingly, they claim to give such low prices because they buy straight from the source (and my package did come from India). Pictures of the product (e.g. blister packs and envelope) are displayed in a Flickr photo gallery that I link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hairlosspi ... 605105435/
I sent 1 tablet to Drug Detection Laboratories, Inc (drugdetection.net, who is FDA-approved and I found through ecstasydata.org). The lab result is displayed below.
http://www.ecstasydata.org/view.php?id=2166
If you do not understand the lab results displayed on that page, good clarification can be found in the 5th post of the following forum thread.
viewtopic.php?f=61&t=66321
Perhaps the Finpecia skeptic still doesn't know if Cipla manufactures trustworthy tablets because the FDA did not approve it. Let me add (for others who I've seen wonder this in threads) that Health Canada did not approve it either. This can be shown by visiting the following web page on Health Canada's website.
http://webprod.hc-sc.gc.ca/dpd-bdpp/index-eng.jsp
The Wikipedia entry for Cipla states that there were manufacturing plants at Cipla approved by the FDA (for other drugs, which I do consider important, and for all I know they're the same plants used to manufacture Finpecia). My opinion is that trying to attain a prescription for Proscar and then purchasing a pill cutter at the local pharmacy seems wisest.
