Canadian medicine changed in the period between 1960 and 1980 from a health care system similar to the United States to a universal health care program that is a combination of public and private funding.  The Patent Medicine Price Review Board sets restrictions on the costs of brand name pharmaceuticals.  In addition, the provinces can purchase bulk amounts of Canadian medicine, with negotiations resulting in even lower prices.  As a result, Americans across the border in the United States spend around $1 billion on Canadian medicine each year.

These purchases are facilitated through Canadian International Pharmacies online.  Medicine Canadian pharmacies sell online is mostly just like the drugs you get from your local pharmacy.  However, sometimes companies package medications differently in different countries.  For instance, if your prescription is normally a large pink pill, the Canadian medicine version might be a small blue pill, but the active ingredients will be identical.  Occasionally, the name is different as well.  This is done in part to ease tracking and distribution, and partially for marketing reasons.

Speaking of marketing, this is one reason that pharmaceuticals cost so much in the United States.  When a new drug is approved, the major companies start huge campaigns of public awareness to get the business needed to pay for the years of research and development on the drug.  Advertising directly to the public by drug manufacturers is not allowed in Canada, keeping overhead lower.  They also do not innovate in the drug industry as much as the United States in relation to population size.  The US pharmaceutical industry creates and develops more new pharmaceuticals than Canadian medicine, or any other country in the world.