Hacker News Reader

Comment by codeTired | Hacker News Reader

I’m actually exploring legality of shipping meds from EU to us directly to patients.

There is a compounded med that isn’t covered by insurance and I wonder if I could find a pharmacy in my homeland(Poland) to compound and ship it directly to patients. I have found some places that apparently do it but the sites are bad and don’t seem legit.

View on HN

This is generally illegal, but my understanding is that it is still done.

I think it's called drug trafficking? I'm no lawyer though.

Read my reply.

It’s illegal, just like the states that first legalized marijuana were. The federal government lays off, seizing a random few shipments. When your drug is on patent, it’s the way to go. Companies like Allergan set up identical process factories in Europe. They purposely don’t fill in the last set of paperwork that would legalize the factory output for export into the U.S. That’s the flimsy mechanism that lets Customs do some window-dressing regulation. Had a problem once, during the Trump Admin. Customs seized a box. I got a nasty, semi-form letter from them. My prescription was replaced at no cost by my mail order provider. They said, “It’s random. Don’t worry about it.” Cost of doing business.

Been doing it for a decade. It’s a huge business. Had one shipment seized by Customs. It was promptly replaced, at no cost to me, by the UK source.

Why not just fly there and bring in luggage? I fly for my each 3-months pack to Copenhagen, it's also a nice place to hang out.

Because many people in US forums cannot get the medication due to cost. This would benefit everyone.

To save $100 every three months?

Do you still need a prescription to get it in Copenhagen?

Yes, but i live in EU and any prescription issued in EU is valid throughout it, even if the particular drug is not marketed in a country where issued (a doctor always has a right to issue a prescription, because drug approvals are always EU-wide).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com