Didn’t your bank charge like $50 to wire the money? Mine did. I wouldn’t wire more because it would cost that much again. Just send less pills.
The money sending always leaves me feeling screwed, but as you said it beats any other alternative.
I make my orders big in order to minimize the money wiring charges. I’ll work on figuring out remitly next time.
If your pharmacy accepts Wise payment, that will be much cheaper. Wise accepts an ACH transfer (usually no fees) from your bank, then your pharma payment from Wise has a minimal fee.
Just use a transfer agent like WISE. I don’t use my bank because they require a personal visit for the first time and a phone conversation for each additional overseas transfer. Plus their fees are higher. The ACH transfer from your account is much cheaper.
I have bought several different drugs from Jagdish and I haven’t experienced any problems except for the first transaction when I didn’t account for the transfer fees involved. Since I was using Wise and the fee was small, he shipped the product anyway and just reminded me to account for the transfer fees in the future.
May I ask why you don’t use ACH transfers such as WISE?
I couldn’t make WISE work, they wouldn’t work with Jagdish. The first time I used Indiamart and my credit card and it cost me $15. Not bad. Then they stopped using Indiamart. I tried Wise, and I read where you said to convert to euros first…I don’t like things I don’t understand…and found it to be not very self explanitory.
Next time I will spend a little more time and try to figure it out. I thought my bank wire would be instant, but no, it took about 10 days too.
Didn’t your bank charge like $50 to wire the money? Mine did. I wouldn’t wire more because it would cost that much again. Just send less pills.
Well, no and yes. My bank didn’t charge me for various reasons, but the destination bank ended up charging about $25 that I didn’t know about up-front.
The money sending always leaves me feeling screwed, but as you said it beats any other alternative.
I assume that once the wrinkles get ironed out, it’s easy. Or so others have said.
I make my orders big in order to minimize the money wiring charges. I’ll work on figuring out remitly next time.
That’s where I’m headed, too.
@RapAdmin : do you want to divide out this discussion into another topic, perhaps “problems & solutions re India orders”? This is getting to be a lengthy discussion that is perhaps diluting this topic.
Everyone, avoid the INTAS brand of Indian pharmaceuticals…
Foreign drug companies can be a little sketchy.
But then again, check out this page.
https://www.fda.gov/search/s=Pfizer&sort_bef_combine=rel_DESC&f[0]=type%3Arecall
I cannot seem to generate a valid link, but you can go to the FDA website and check out Pfizer or any other drug maker known to the FDA. So I will just post a partial screen clip of the first page.
Interestingly American big pharma almost always receives a pass to have a voluntary recall and is seldom reprimanded.
I just received my order of acarbose from Kachhela Medex, took 13 days to arrive. The order is more than I ordered, looks like he threw in some extras for me.
Reports of this nature happen elsewhere, too. For example, Johnson & Johnson and Tylenol. It was so bad that the FDA had to take over the plants. So not only would people buying the Walmart generic paid a fraction of the cost, they would have probably gotten something of higher quality made in India.
https://money.cnn.com/2011/03/10/news/companies/johnson_mcneil_fda_action/index.htmI
You are aware Reddy is an Indian pharmaceutical company?
“Reddy’s Laboratories is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company based in Hyderabad. The company was founded by Kallam Anji Reddy, who previously worked in the mentor institute Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited. Dr. Reddy’s manufactures and markets a wide range of pharmaceuticals in India and overseas.”
And Biocon (Yes, the name is unfortunate):
The company manufactures generic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that are sold in approximately 120 countries, including the United States and Europe. It also manufactures novel biologics as well as biosimilar insulins and antibodies, which are sold in India as branded formulations.
Biocon is in the top 100 Largest Biotech companies by Market Cap.
I only point this out because many of us source our rapamycin from Biocon with no problems so far. IMO: Biocon of India is no more sketchy than any other big pharmaceutical company.
Biocon already produces Semglee, a biosimilar for Sanofi’s insulin Lantus, which scored U.S. approval (PDF) in June of 2021 and launched two months later.
“But Viatris, too, is in a state of flux. Earlier this year, the company, which is the result of a recent merger between Mylan and Pfizer’s Upjohn, sold its portfolio of biosimilars to Biocon for $3.3 billion.”
So, if you like “big pharma” Biocon is in good company.
That’s the brand that had a previous FDA recall for impurities from their US plant. It had elevated levels of a salt of rapamycin that has 4% the potency of actual rapamycin.
I’m currently using the Kachhela Medex brand at $0.41/mg. Someone posted a COA earlier.
Something like this would be useful Paper Test to Detect Fake Medications | Medgadget
Not sure if this is commercially available?
Hi everyone. My name is ashkir. I found this by accident when searching for my medicine. I’ve been taking sirolimus for about 2.5 years now. I had a heart transplant. Didn’t know about this aging step. This drug is one of the best anti-rejection medicines for heart transplants, and, is now considered by the hospital I go to as a low-grade chemo. It does give me gum pain (it’s known to make your gums decay sometimes).
It did stop rejection in its tracks.
I also take soliris (Eculizumab) infrequently.
So anyways… CVS Pharmacy has out of pocket prices of $75-$85 for my 30 sirolimus pills. Way cheaper than my insurance cost of $400.
Hey there! I find that to be interesting how rapamune is being used for that.
The out of pocket price is 100% no insurance. My insurance wants $420 for my prescription… But, CVS sells it out of pocket for much, much, cheaper.
One thing I have to be careful about is kidney toxicity. I was on another medicine before they moved me to sirolimus. They told me eventually it may cause my kidneys to die and I’ll need a kidney transplant in the future.
Interesting. A few of us were under the impression that Sirolimus might aid the gums and help with periodontal disease… some have even made a Rapamycin toothpaste. I would like to hear more about your experience with that…
Hmm. Goodrx shows the out-of-pocket prices for drugs at local pharmacies. In my area, for CVS it shows over $2100 for 30 tablets of Rapamune @ 2 mg. $1,065 for the 1 mg. For generic, it’s $284 and $148, respectively.
There is a non-profit pharmacy in the US called Rx Outreach.
Some people here may qualify. Per their website:
Rx Outreach is available to individuals and families whose income is at or below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level. This changes each year, but for a single person, annual income cannot exceed $54,360; a family of four may have an annual household income up to $111,000.
Through them, it’s $150 for 30 2mg tablets, and $110 for each additional 30 tablets.
For the 1 mg, it’s $90 for the first 30 tablets, and $55 for each additional 30 tablets.
Great info here. I have an invoice from Jagdish from Niba Healthcare but get the error “Unfortunately we are unable to provide to this particular business. We apologise for any inconvenience caused” when I put in the bank details provided in Wise. I contacted him and he resent the Pdf on how to pay which I have followed. What other options would people recommend. I looked at XE Transfer that @Desertshore mentions, but the recent reviews are awful.
In Wise, I used his email address and I didn’t have to set up the recipient bank info. It was comparatively easier than the other vendors who aren’t set up like that. I’ve sent him money as recently as just a few days ago.
Remitly is weird. When I tried to send money to Jadish Nikose’s bank. Remitly closed my account with no explanation. Their site listed as a possible reason for closing an account was money laundering. The amount of the transaction certainly was smaller than could possibly be money laundering. I think it’s his bank that is sketchy.
