Firms acting as middlemen in the search for cheaper drugs

ROSWELL - For years, 77-year-old Gladys McNeill didn&#39;t take one of the drugs her doctor had prescribed. She couldn&#39;t afford it. <br> <br> But after a store called Medications Cheaper opened in Dunwoody in January, she found a connection to cheaper Canadian drugs. She got a three-month supply of the drug imported from Canada for $270 - almost half what she would have paid for the drug from here. <br> <br> While it&#39;s common for seniors in Northern states travel to Canada in search of cheaper drugs, most in the South aren&#39;t able to make the trek or use the Internet to buy medication from a country where prices often are 40 percent to 70 percent cheaper. <br> <br> Instead, companies such as Medications Cheaper are connecting American consumers with Canadian pharmacists. Three such go-betweens have opened shops in metro Atlanta with two planning to expand across Georgia. <br> <br> Customers fill out medical profiles, sign liability release forms and bring in prescriptions from their physicians. The company orders the drugs online from a Canadian pharmacy, where physicians rewrite the prescriptions to meet Canadian laws. Then the pharmacy mails the order to customers. <br> <br> Companies such as Medications Cheaper and Canadian Discount Drugs in Peachtree City do business by telephone and mail but hope to set up walk-in outlets. <br> <br> Federal authorities are looking the other way on a practice that technically is illegal. <br> <br> ``The FDA is not concerned with arresting grandmothers who go to Canada to get prescription drugs,&#39;&#39; said Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Laura Bradbard. She said the agency doesn&#39;t have the resources to pursue such import activity. <br> <br> The FDA warns that it can&#39;t guarantee products made in Canadian factories and inspected by Canadian authorities. <br> <br> The Georgia Board of Pharmacy can&#39;t regulate the stores, either, because the companies have retail business licenses and do not operate as pharmacies. <br> <br> Americans who buy Canadian drugs and suffer from side effects may have little recourse, said Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. <br> <br> But the companies say the safety of their suppliers isn&#39;t a concern. <br> <br> ``We&#39;re talking about Canada, a First World country with safety regulations at least parallel or even superior to those in the United States,&#39;&#39; said Brad Stevens, president of Canadian Discount Drugs. ``We have not had one issue with quality at all.&#39;&#39;

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