There are many prescription assistance plans offered by both the government and drug companies touting free or discounted medications for those who are down and out. These plans could help those who are in severe need of prescription drug assistance be able to afford medication and live a higher quality of life.

So why aren’t all those in need of a prescription assistance program taking advantage of these great gifts from the government? Simply because not all qualify, the process and litigation is horrendous, and the discounts are not immediate.

Here at eDrugSearch.com we have created a brand new patient assistance program to help all of those who need help now and don’t want to jump through hoops in order to receive the prescription drug assistance they need. We have gone and negotiated exclusive discounts with Canada’s top pharmacies to offer you the best discounts than you can’t find anywhere online.

Our new three-step program is called the eDrugSearch.com Reward Points Program and here is how it works:

1. Use eDrugSearch.com to seek out everyday online discounts of 40% – 80% on your medication

2. Participate in our online community to earn points

3. Redeem those points for additional cash rebates of up to 20%

Joining eDrugSearch.com and participating in the community is easy. You’ll earn cash discounts of up to 20% on our pharmacies’ already-low prices by simply answering questions and helping out other members, rating and reviewing a pharmacy you have used, posting a message online, and many other easy tasks.

The best part of the Points Program is that the rebates are instant and received right when you purchase your medications; no waiting around for a rebate check or refund…you save NOW.

Signing up for eDrugSearch.com is completely free, and if you join now you will get 10% off your entire first order. No jumping through hoops, no having to meet any requirements, just simple no strings attached instant savings.

Join Now!

As many of you may have already noticed, there has been an increase in how much you pay for your drugs. Although inflation remained flat for the year ending in March 2010, the prices for brand-name drugs went up nearly 10 percent, according to AARP.

A recent report on prescription drug prices from The Sun News,

“Last year, the inflation rate was 0.3 percent, but drug prices went up over 9.7 percent,” said John Rother, executive vice president for policy at AARP. “That’s quite a contrast.”

And the price hikes don’t just affect people on Medicare.

Rother says the population aged 50 to 64 represents the biggest increase in people taking drugs, and for some of the most common conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

“The compounded effect is to raise the cost of prescription brand-name drugs way beyond people’s ability to pay,” he said, “particularly if they don’t have insurance.”

The rise in drug prices have really cut into the budget of many all over the US. In South Carolina for example, 713,000 people pay nearly 30 percent of their income on out-of-pocket medical costs including drugs.

The rise in prescription prices is being blamed on no countervailing pressure in the industry.

John Rother, executive vice president for policy at AARP says drug companies raise prices because “there is no countervailing pressure.” Moreover, he says, on average, the industry’s profit margin is about 20 percent.

“We want them to succeed, to be innovators,” he said. “But there’s a need to balance that with reasonable costs.”

Until a true solution can be found, Rother recommends that consumers should try to substitute generic drugs when possible, however not every drug has a generic equivalent available.

We recommend that you take full advantage of the resources here at eDrugSearch.com and join the community of educated consumers that are saving drastically on their prescription medications.

Not only will you find the safest pharmacies with the cheapest drug prices, you will also be able to save an additional ten percent off your drug orders by simply participating in our online community.

Fard Johnmar of Envision Solutions has produced a new report designed to facilitate communication between health organizations and social networkers. We were fortunate to be among the Web sites profiled in the study and got a sneak peek at it last week. As always with Fard’s work, the report is thoughtful and well-documented.

In introducing the report, Fard [pictured] is also hosting a Webinar on January 29 at noon Central.

Learn more — and sign up! — here.

We are in the process of updating our Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) based on community feedback, and I am enlisting your help as we prepare to incorporate a number of enhancements. I encourage all eDrugSearch.com visitors — including comparison shoppers, community participants and our blogger friends — to complete the following brief survey, which asks you to compare two potential SERP updates.

The poll will run until Sunday, May 18. Here are instructions for completing the survey:

1. Open Sample SERP Version 2 in a new window on your browser.
2. Open Sample SERP Version 3 in a second new window.
3. In your original window, click here to take the survey.
4. As you answer the survey questions, keep in mind that the sample SERP pages are not fully functional.
5. Finally: If you forget which sample SERP is which after you’ve opened them, remember that Sample SERP 2 is the one with a column-based organization and “Go To Store” buttons.

Thank you in advance for helping to make eDrugSearch.com the best experience possible for prescription drug consumers!

Matthew Holt has posted a byline by yours truly on the Health 2.0 Blog. Check it out.

From the press release we distributed this morning:

eDrugSearch.com, the Health 2.0 social network and comparison shopping site for prescription drug consumers, announced today that it has generated more than $2.1 million in sales for member pharmacies through 875,000 visitor referrals from its comparison shopping engine. This includes an estimated $435,000 in March, based on 175,000 referrals to member sites.

“eDrugSearch.com has established itself as one of the Web’s fastest-growing vertical search engines and comparison shopping sites since our launch last year,” said Cary Byrd, president and founder of eDrugSearch.com. “Our visitors know they can trust the quality and service of the pharmacies in our database — and trust us to deliver lower prices on prescription medications than they can find elsewhere.”

From Comparison Shopping Engine to Health 2.0 Social Network

eDrugSearch.com launched in January 2007 as a vertical search engine enabling comparison shopping for Americans interested in purchasing safe, low-cost prescription drugs from prescreened international pharmacies. With more than 50,000 drug listings, eDrugSearch.com brings together licensed and accredited pharmacies from around the world in one comprehensive, easy-to-use database.

In February of this year, eDrugSearch.com expanded its mission by launching a social network, the eDrugSearch.com Community, that enables site visitors to rate and review drugs and pharmacies; monitor the latest FDA updates, price changes and other news related to their current drug regimens; and share experiences with others taking the same drugs or who have similar health conditions.

Site Has Experienced Increase in “Stickiness”

Byrd said that in just two months, the eDrugSearch.com Community has already led to a dramatic increase in the amount of time the average visitor spends on the site – which he says has led not only to overall growth in sales, but to an increase in sales per visitor.

“Before we launched our social network, most of our visitors bought some – but not all – of their prescription drugs through our site,” explains Byrd. “Thanks to the community, we’re beginning to form much stronger and more personal relationships with these customers. The site is ‘stickier’ now.

“One result of this is that more of our members are choosing to purchase all of their medications through eDrugSearch.com.”

Byrd added that eDrugSearch.com soon will offer exclusive drug discounts to members who actively participate in the eDrugSearch.com Community.

“To reward community members for their involvement, we give them eDrugSearch.com Points, which will be redeemable for drug discounts at participating pharmacies,” Byrd said. “People come to eDrugSearch.com to save money, and this will be another way for them to do that.”

Success Without Advertising

Byrd said that eDrugSearch.com has clearly struck a chord with consumers, as evidenced by the fact that it has grown through word of mouth, without the benefit of advertising.

“We’ve done no pay-per-click, no banner ads. We’ve used a variety of SEO strategies, in addition to the eDrugSearch Blog and Healthcare 100 blog ranking system, to attract interest in our site,” Byrd said. “The Healthcare 100, in fact, was recently mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. We’ve also attracted TV and newspaper coverage and received good buzz online.”

Praise from Member Pharmacies

eDrugSearch.com has earned kudos from member pharmacies:

David Janeson, owner of Winnipeg, Canada-based Jandrugs –

“eDrugSearch.com has helped Jandrugs reach out to many new customers who would otherwise not be aware of our service. The third-party validation from eDrugSearch.com and customer reviews let potential customers know that Jandrugs is a safe and professional pharmacy for patients to fill the prescriptions they need at substantial savings. ”

Barry West of Sydney, Australia-based MedStore International —

“We carry the eDrugSearch.com seal on our site and invite visitors from all sources to click through to eDrugSearch.com to confirm our profile and read ratings and reviews. We receive visitors each day directly from the eDrugSearch.com site – customers who might never have heard about us unless we had our listing on eDrugSearch.”

The folks at MarketIntellNow just published a Q&A with me, where we discuss some of our company’s strategies and accomplishments to date. We give specifics on traffic, referrals and revenues for member pharmacies.

Check out the MarketIntellNow Interview.

We’re pleased to say that Tom Lamb at Drug Injury Watch is a member of the eDrugSearch.com Community. He wasted no time after joining in stirring up a little controversy, posing the following question:

Do you think that this “federal preemption” of drug injury cases is a good idea or bad policy?

Among the responses of community members (which you can see in their entirety here):

It would be horrible policy, because as we all know, the FDA no longer has teeth and is basically run by the pharmaceutical industry. If you then say the pharma companies can’t be sued because of FDA approval, you turn the system into a sick (pardon the pun) joke…

If these drugs are unsafe in the first place, and no communications are made between the physician and the patient in form of a waiver, or agreement (for example, if the drug is a trial and the patient still wishes to try it) then the physician should be held accountable … It’s bad policy and taking away our rights to prohibit suits from occurring…

The thing that I can’t get over is the former FDA chief and a professor at UC San Francisco saying the FDA “doesn’t have the ability at this time to oversee in a comprehensive fashion everything it regulates.” So why does the FDA even exist if they can’t do their job? The drug companies must be held accountable by the public because the FDA is not and cannot do their job…

Realistically, the fact that the pharma companies are trying to use the weak FDA as a shield against responsibility, as expected as it is, is just plain wrong. Yes, we live in an increasingly litigious society and you might get an unreasonably hopeful suit from time to time; it’s a price of doing business.

Seems pretty unanimous to me. But if you have a different opinion, you’re welcome to join us and add it!

We’re delighted to be a sponsor and participant in Matthew Holt’s Health 2.0 conference in San Diego today and tomorrow.

Though I won’t be able to attend, Scott Baradell – a strategic advisor who has worked closely with me since our company’s founding — will represent eDrugSearch.com at the event. Scott will be introducing the panel “Health 2.0: The future user experience?” moderated by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn and featuring panelists including:

• Thomas Goetz, Wired
• Esther Dyson, EDventure
• David Kibbe, MD, AAFP
• Doug Solomon, IDEO
• Scott Shreeve, MD, Crossover Healthcare
• Amy Tenderich, Diabetes Mine

Scott has promised to blog about his experience when he gets back.