Pills and insulin available for purchase in Nogales
Diabetes medications for type 1 and type 2 diabetics are widely available for purchase in the pharmacies of Nogales, Mexico. In fact, some of the pills used to treat type 2 diabetes are made in factories in Tijuana and shipped to various parts of Mexico as well as U.S. pharmacies and distributors.
My experience with Mexican diabetes medications happened at the end of 2015, when my insurance removed glyburide-metformin from its formulary, a medication I was taking to treat my type 2 diabetes mellitus.
I had been paying $4 a month for the combination drug, and after it was removed the only option was to buy glyburide and metformin separately. The metformin would cost $4 a month, and the glyburide was $30 a month. So my outrage at pharmaceutical greed took me across the border to a Nogales discount pharmacy.
There I purchased generic glyburide,called “Lawazin,” 100 tablets of the same 5mg dosage I took twice a day, for about $6. It was 40 percent more tablets than my monthly dosage, and for only one-third more than the copay that I paid with my insurance. The problem is, while I was taking the medication my blood sugar spiked to between 300 and 400.
The increase in blood glucose levels could have been due to either the metformin, the glyburide, taking both separately, or due to some external cause.
But after a visit to my Tucson physician, the issue was resolved with a prescription of glipizide-metformin – a different diabetes combination drug that works better (for me, anyway) than the glyburide-metformin, although the dosage was doubled. A double-dosage with only a $2 monthly insurance copay.
Fortunately with diabetes medications, you can gauge their effectiveness through subsequent blood sugar testing. I did not share my personal experience to dissuade you from purchasing diabetes medication in Nogales, but would be interested in hearing about your experiences, good or bad. To provide feedback, please send us a message via our online feedback form. All responses will be treated with the utmost of confidentiality.
If you would like to check prices of diabetes medications, we have done some basic price checks for metformin, glyburide, glipizide, injectable insulin and Tradjenta. And we will be adding more, stay tuned to our Pharmacy Prices page.