It’s prescription only. It helps with joint pain, but it’s really expensive, so it’s like gold at our 55 and older park in the Valley. Partially used tubes get passed around. Judy uses it for the pain in her wrists.
Our tube is running low on this trip though, so Judy asked a pharmacist at a drug store in Saskatchewan if there was anything non-prescription she could use until she got the prescription renewed back in the states. She got an unexpected response. Voltaren gel is over-the-counter in Canada; no prescription required. After our insurance covers their share, it still costs us ninety dollars for a two-tube prescription 1% active ingredient. Here in Canada Judy bought a tube of non-prescription 2.3% Voltaren gel for $18. $18 Canadian! (As best I can calculate, that’s about $2.47 U.S. J)
I know there can be business reasons for charging more for a drug than it takes to produce it. There are research and development costs to cover. There is our free-market economy that allows producers to charge what the market will bear. But I have to wonder, why would the free-market be so different in Canada than in the U.S.?
Back in the USSA. We’re in Shelby Montana.
Another city park. Lake Sheloole.
It feels like looking out across rolling grasslands of Dances with Wolves.
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