Everyday more people are becoming aware of how much they can save ordering their prescription medications online through eDrugSearch.com. Recently, we have had several individuals contact us to walk them through their first time purchase. Although the process is simple, ordering your drugs online can be a little confusing your first time through. Let’s walk through the process so that you can make your first purchase without hitting any speed bumps along the way.

1. Sign up to eDrugSearch.com- Although this is the easiest step, it is also the most important. Signing up to eDrugSearch.com will not only save you 10% off your entire first purchase, you will also save even more down the road if you continue to order through the site and take advantage of the eDrugSearch.com Points Reward Program.

2. Locate Your Medication- Type in the medication and dosage you are looking for into the search bar and hit search. If the medication you searched for is available, a box will appear showing the lowest price for that medication, the amount offered, and whether it is the brand or generic version. Now, click on the compare prices link that is located directly below the drug name and dosage.

3. Compare Prices- Search the list of drug prices that each pharmacy offers for the drug you are looking to purchase. You can compare the dosage, overall price, price per unit, or even the pharmacy rating. Once you have found the price you like, click on the buy now button.

4. Checkout from pharmacy- After clicking the buy now button, you will be taken to the pharmacy page of the drug you have chosen. Simply add the drug to your shopping cart and head to the checkout page. You must then sign up for a user account and email, mail, or fax a copy of your prescription from your doctor. After your prescription has been verified by the pharmacy you have chosen, you will be able to purchase your medications. The additional 10% eDrugSearch.com discount will be taken off your entire first order automatically at the pharmacy checkout.

You will find that purchasing drugs through eDrugSearch.com will save you both time and money. If you ever have a question about how to use the site, or find that we aren’t currently carrying a drug that you are trying to buy, feel free to contact us through our email or chat Mon-Fri, 9-5. Don’t pay full price for your medications any more, join today and start saving.

There are many prescription assistance plans offered by both the government and drug companies touting free or discounted medications for those who are down and out. These plans could help those who are in severe need of prescription drug assistance be able to afford medication and live a higher quality of life.

So why aren’t all those in need of a prescription assistance program taking advantage of these great gifts from the government? Simply because not all qualify, the process and litigation is horrendous, and the discounts are not immediate.

Here at eDrugSearch.com we have created a brand new patient assistance program to help all of those who need help now and don’t want to jump through hoops in order to receive the prescription drug assistance they need. We have gone and negotiated exclusive discounts with Canada’s top pharmacies to offer you the best discounts than you can’t find anywhere online.

Our new three-step program is called the eDrugSearch.com Reward Points Program and here is how it works:

1. Use eDrugSearch.com to seek out everyday online discounts of 40% – 80% on your medication

2. Participate in our online community to earn points

3. Redeem those points for additional cash rebates of up to 20%

Joining eDrugSearch.com and participating in the community is easy. You’ll earn cash discounts of up to 20% on our pharmacies’ already-low prices by simply answering questions and helping out other members, rating and reviewing a pharmacy you have used, posting a message online, and many other easy tasks.

The best part of the Points Program is that the rebates are instant and received right when you purchase your medications; no waiting around for a rebate check or refund…you save NOW.

Signing up for eDrugSearch.com is completely free, and if you join now you will get 10% off your entire first order. No jumping through hoops, no having to meet any requirements, just simple no strings attached instant savings.

Join Now!

As many of you may have already noticed, there has been an increase in how much you pay for your drugs. Although inflation remained flat for the year ending in March 2010, the prices for brand-name drugs went up nearly 10 percent, according to AARP.

A recent report on prescription drug prices from The Sun News,

“Last year, the inflation rate was 0.3 percent, but drug prices went up over 9.7 percent,” said John Rother, executive vice president for policy at AARP. “That’s quite a contrast.”

And the price hikes don’t just affect people on Medicare.

Rother says the population aged 50 to 64 represents the biggest increase in people taking drugs, and for some of the most common conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

“The compounded effect is to raise the cost of prescription brand-name drugs way beyond people’s ability to pay,” he said, “particularly if they don’t have insurance.”

The rise in drug prices have really cut into the budget of many all over the US. In South Carolina for example, 713,000 people pay nearly 30 percent of their income on out-of-pocket medical costs including drugs.

The rise in prescription prices is being blamed on no countervailing pressure in the industry.

John Rother, executive vice president for policy at AARP says drug companies raise prices because “there is no countervailing pressure.” Moreover, he says, on average, the industry’s profit margin is about 20 percent.

“We want them to succeed, to be innovators,” he said. “But there’s a need to balance that with reasonable costs.”

Until a true solution can be found, Rother recommends that consumers should try to substitute generic drugs when possible, however not every drug has a generic equivalent available.

We recommend that you take full advantage of the resources here at eDrugSearch.com and join the community of educated consumers that are saving drastically on their prescription medications.

Not only will you find the safest pharmacies with the cheapest drug prices, you will also be able to save an additional ten percent off your drug orders by simply participating in our online community.

We’re nearing the end of the year, and many people are already in open enrollment for next year’s health coverage, which means it is a great time to plan ahead for your 2010 drug expenditures. No, you can’t know every medication you are going to need, but if you are on a popular, patented maintenance drug such as Lipitor or Cozaar, you’ll be pleased to hear that their patents are expiring in 2010, opening the field for more-affordable U.S. generic versions.

In the meantime, as you do your research, you will see that many are already available as generics, manufactured outside of the U.S. There is usually a considerable cost savings.

Here are all the details of some of the highest-profile drugs that have expiring patents as of the end of 2009, or during 2010 — and how and where to get the generic versions.

ARICEPT (donepezil). Pfizer makes the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor Aricept for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Aricept is scheduled to lose patent protection in the U.S. in 2010, but generic versions are already available.

COZAAR (losartan). Merck’s Cozaar is an angiotensin II receptor antagonist, used to treat hypertension. Cozaar’s patent protection in the U.S. will expire in 2010. In the meantime, generic losartan is available here.

LEVAQUIN (levofloxacin). Johnson & Johnson’s antibiotic drug Levaquin will outlive its patent protection in 2010. However, until that time, you can purchase generic levofloxacin here.

LIPITOR (atorvastatin). Pfizer has the best-selling drug in the world in Lipitor, which treats high cholesterol. In the US, the basic patent for Lipitor expires in March 2010, while the second patent covering the calcium salt of atorvastatin expires in June 2011. It is not yet clear exactly which date will see widespread availability of generic Lipitor in the U.S., but it is coming. In the meantime, generic atorvastatin is available here.

XENICAL (orlistat). Roche’s Xenical is an obesity treatment that prevents the digestive system from absorbing fats. Its patent expires in December of this year.  (Note: In some countries, including the U.S., orlistat is available over-the-counter as GlaxoSmithKline’s Alli.)

VALTREX (valacyclovir). GlaxoSmithKline’s Valtrex is a treatment for herpes simplex and herpes zoster (shingles). Valacyclovir was recently approved for generic production, and so generic versions will be on the U.S. market by the end of 2009. As of this writing, generic valacyclovir is available here.

If you’re interested in the business ramifications for the pharmaceutical companies, CNN ran a good article on the topic, and so did Chemistry World.

Enjoy using EDrugSearch.com to knowledgeably plan your medication choices for the coming year.

As part of our visit to Consumer Reports headquarters last month to participate in the health blogger summit, we had an opportunity to tour the famous Consumer Reports labs — where they seemingly test every product under the sun, from cameras to stereos, home-gym equipment to washers and dryers. They even have food testers who have to sit behind metal doors waiting for food to taste — so the aroma from the test kitchen doesn’t cloud their judgment!

Here are a few of my photos from the tour (you can view the full set on Flickr):

This is where they test the audio equipment. It’s very quiet — and totally soundproof. Sometimes, when groups of schoolchildren or Boy Scouts tour the facilities, the editors will invite them to come in here and scream at the top of their lungs (with the adults on the other side of the door, of course.)

This is where they test the washers and dryers. To test the washers’ performance on various stains, they use test strips featuring a sample of every kind of stain you can think of, which they import from Europe at a cost of $30 each. They go through 1,000 of these strips during comparative testing, so you can see that doing this right isn’t cheap.

A Consumer Reports editor stands in the test kitchen — in front of those metal doors I was telling you about (under the coffeemakers).

We tried our hand at food testing, comparing two brands of chocolate chip cookies. We decided that the brand pictured wasn’t chocolatey enough.

The photography testing lab.

They use this simulator (as well as actual humans) to test the aerobic equipment.

I’ve been a reader of Consumer Reports for most of my life, so it was a thrill to see where all those ratings I’ve relied on came from. I plan to write some more posts about the conference, but I was determined to get these lab pics up this week!

Have a great weekend.

• FDA Approves Savella for treatment of Fibromyalgia (Biotech Weblog)
• What are they teaching interns these days? (The Angry Pharmacist)
• Coping with my life (Soulful Sepulcher)
• Loss (Neonatal Doc)

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Fard Johnmar of Envision Solutions has produced a new report designed to facilitate communication between health organizations and social networkers. We were fortunate to be among the Web sites profiled in the study and got a sneak peek at it last week. As always with Fard’s work, the report is thoughtful and well-documented.

In introducing the report, Fard [pictured] is also hosting a Webinar on January 29 at noon Central.

Learn more — and sign up! — here.

• Pharmalot… Pharmanot… So Long, Folks (Pharmalot)
• Resource: State Coverage Initiatives Website (Healthcare Economist)
• First Day of School! (Scrubs & Spit Up)
• Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis (DISH) Forestier Disease (My Medical Journal)

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• Even Santa has to fill in a clipboard (HEALTH’Sass)
• A Cause Worth Latching Onto (Birth Activist)
• Obama wants physics Nobel Laureate Steven Chu for top energy post (Flesh and Stone)
• Randy Pausch Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams (Medical Pills)

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• NICE’s Rawlins is a fan of GSK’s Witty (PharmaGossip)
• Osteoporosis Drug Zometa Shrinks Breast Cancer Tumors (Straight From the Doc)
• My comments on new HFCS research (A Life Less Sweet)
• Systems and the risk of failure (Pioneering Ideas)

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