I hope my meds were fake

[techprof]

college, I was born in India and currently on track in getting US citizenship.
In June 2004, I got back on minoxidil (with azelaic acid). Started generic finasteride on August 2004. I was on it till June 2005. Used US genuine proscar with a prescription from my doctor till Feb 2006. Went to India this June for my brother's marriage, and to get my hair transplant.
I was wondering if starting genuine finasteride on June 2004 would have helped. My answer was not much.
At my state, treatments are only to hold the sides and the back and to thicken the existing hairs.

As you said, the internet pharmacies make a huge profit by selling the actual drug from the reputed labs CIPLA or Dr. Reddy's. So, I don't see them cheating.

Regarding your post on servants, that is interesting. The urban India in some places can be more modernized than even the west coast in the US (the pubs/bars, high heels, etc). The country side still remains poor and under developed.

(My parents pay 5$ a month for 24 hours DSL highspeed connection. They used to pay 50$ per month for dial up not long ago. They can choose 1 among 3 or 4 DSL companies. The internet and communication are changing things very quickly.
As opposed to the banks in the US which work 8-5 monday to friday, they have banks, hairdressers and pretty much any services available till 10 pm 7 days a week).

 

[CCS]

You call yourself a NW6? You do have thinning in that pattern, but you have as much hair over your top as I have in my front. And your crown is not shiny bald, from the pictures...or were those taken after the hair transplant?

I've thought about moving to india, from the way my roommate described it. Not for servants, though. So are you sure that http://www.inhousepharmacy.com and http://www.unitedpharmacies.com get their drugs from Dr Reddy's, inc, and Cipla? Sounds like you would be someone who would be able to know something like that.

Do you know why they don't have a physical address on their site? If they are not a branch of these companies, they would have to store drugs somewhere before shipping them, unless they are these companies but under a different name to protect them.

 

[techprof]

college as I have said in my story, I was a NW6 in June 2004 and moved to NW5 by June 2005. I tend to believe that I was between Norwood 4and 5 before my hair transplant in June 2006. Dr. Arvind said that I was a NW5.

I have bought my finasteride and dutasteride from inhousepharmacy and unitedpharmacies and I believe them to be genuine (the pill color taste, cover of the pill, strip, writing on the strip etc match)

 

[CCS]

will indian pharmacies mail drugs directly to you?

 

[techprof]

college,
unless you know someone personally who is willing to take the effort and the chances, it is not going to happen.
The main problem I see with this is that, they may not be sure of the US customs and it costs a lot to ship medicines.

 

[CCS]

why does it cost so much to ship medicines, and how does http://www.unitedpharmacies.com get around this? would the indian pharmacy be in trouble if US customs caught the package?

you said someone would have to take a chance personally. you mean buy from the pharmacy and mail it? So you are saying that you know the pharmacies would not mail it?

I know http://www.unitedpharmacies.com claims to be based in oceania, not india. I wonder why that is, and if india does not like them or if india uses them so that india does not get in trouble, and if this company unofficially or officially gets products from Cipla.

 

[techprof]

college this is what I believe unitepharmacies or companies like that do. They have a registered site somewhere else. They recruit some one to work in India. They get this person to ship from India to the US. Or they buy the drugs in bulk and ship them to the US.

 

[CCS]

OK. I did a search on http://www.register.com. elitenetpharmacy.com's web site is hosted out of panama, as is http://www.inhousepharmacy.com's. http://www.eucapil.com is hosted out of berlin. http://www.walgreen.com's is hosted out of the united states, and http://www.unitedpharmacies.com is hosted out of hong kong.

As for purchasing, I doubt a pharmacy would sell that much to one person, though they might. The whole sale route makes sense. In order to get drugs from Cipla, Cipla needs to either think it is selling to a pharmacy, or another pharmacy must want to increase sales volume. I'm just wondering how laxed Cipla and GSK are. Any site that sells GSK avodart to people without prescriptions must not be watched closely. I just wonder what enforcement is put on pharmacies and whole salers, if any, and how these net pharmacies get their stuff. Because if they can't get any from GSK or Cipla, it is much easier to find a factory that will make fakes, unless it is easy for that factory to make all these drugs. But I'm sure standards would vary in that case.

 

[hairwegoagain]

College, this is the black market - with all the associated risks. These online "pharmacies" do not have stature nor privilege in the eyes of legitimate drug manufacturers and are by no means "authorized" by same. Their activity is in no way sanctioned. You're dealing with a guy sitting at his kitchen table somewhere in cyberspace - probably in his pajamas - processing your credit card transaction. He has a relationship with some shady foreign pharmacies or possibly less glamorous sources. He has those sources send the product to you at some price lower than what you paid him. That's it.

Who this guy is, where he is, and who he has send your product are things you will never know. He won't tell you. How the product was stored, if it sat in the sun or in humid storage - you will never know. Whether it's real to begin with - spin the wheel. Maybe you'll get lucky, maybe you won't. Problem is, you won't know either way.