BajaNomad - Medications - Powered by XMB

Medications

PolsonGriz - 1-13-2009 at 07:25 AM

We are in the stages of planning a 6-8 week trip to Baja and the question of medications has come up. My wife can only get 30 days of meds at a time. We are wondering if the following meds are readily available and there costs? She takes Sinemet and Requip. Any help is greatly appreciated. BTW I believe we will be in the La Paz area.

Pescador - 1-13-2009 at 08:31 AM

We always stop at Algodones, which is just outside of Yuma and buy our prescriptions. If there is a Mexican generic you will find that it will cost about 1/10th of what it costs in the US. If you are flying instead of driving, you should be able to get most prescriptions in La Paz.
But, if you talk to your insurance company, you should be able to get a two month prescription for travel purposes. Since I am a health insurance agent, I know that all of the plans I sell in Colorado have that provision, so you may want to check. In fact almost all of the call in prescriptions that are now sent through the mail are done in a 90 day format.

bajabound2005 - 1-13-2009 at 08:41 AM

I agree with Pescador. The problem with some meds here (in Baja) is that you can't always get the correct dosage and they sell them in odd counts (like a package of 12 instead of a 30 day supply).

vandenberg - 1-13-2009 at 08:43 AM

Quote:

If you are flying instead of driving, you should be able to get most prescriptions in La Paz.

And by boat ?? :?:

PolsonGriz - 1-13-2009 at 02:25 PM

Thanks for the advice.

Pescador - 1-13-2009 at 05:56 PM

Also, if you are not on a medical plan, you can usually get the doctor to issue a prescription for 60 or 90 days by simply asking. They oftentimes do a 30 day because they want to check something within that time period, but when they know you are going to be on a trip they will normally extend the time.

PolsonGriz - 1-14-2009 at 09:44 AM

One more thing if we purchased them there, is the quality the same?

Note

bajaguy - 1-14-2009 at 10:07 AM

keep a copy of your Rx with you and keep the meds in their original containers

Pescador - 1-14-2009 at 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by PolsonGriz
One more thing if we purchased them there, is the quality the same? [/quote

Mexico allows the production of generic drugs that come from the original manufacturers in the US, consequently medicines are cheaper because they do not have to pay the R & D. For very common drugs this can be a really good deal and I find that the quality is usually very good and over the last 20 years or so, have had no problems but I do take and accept the responsibility of trying out a drug and testing its effectiveness on me. I did have a challenge with a prilosec medication for Acid Reflux but found that when I changed to the time release, that everything was fine. Instead of paying ove $100 per month in the US, I could purchase the generic formula in Algodones for less than $10.
That being said, Senemet and Requip are probably not medications that I would want to experiment with and would probably go the route of having the doctor give an additional time frame for travel.

comitan - 1-14-2009 at 12:28 PM

One experience we had with generics in Mexico, My wife had an ear infection so bought ampicilin Generic after a week of it doing no good, took her to a doctor, when shown the medicine he just smirked threw it in the waste basket and gave us a prescription for the Ampicilin ( brand name) and within 3 days was on her way to getting well. The generic was from one of those 75% discount Pharmacias.

PolsonGriz - 1-15-2009 at 10:16 AM

Thank you again for the replies.

Mitch