Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Laughter is the Best Medicine

I was very happy to finally find an Aussie version of Aleve, aka naproxen sodium, in the local Chemist. However, medicines in general shock me here. For one thing, they are sold in extremely small quantities. In the states it was common to buy headache/muscle ache medicines such as in bottles of 80-100 pills, and larger bottles with 150-250 pills were also available. However, in Australia it is common to purchase 20-24 pills at a time.

In the states it costs about $8 US for a bottle of 200 pills of a typical generic brand of Aleve, and I believe $12 for the brand name. In Australia it costs about $10 AUS (which is ~$9 US) for just 20 pills of the same thing. That means it's roughly 10 times as expensive here. Each time I have a headache and take 2 pills, it costs me $1.00. I'm hoping I don't have many headaches. I also found it extremely funny that naproxen sodium is marketed over here as a menstrual relief drug.

Enjoy your cheap and bountiful medicines, USA!

2 comments:

Aaron said...

Thanks for your insights into your first introduction of true culture shock. It's one thing to visit a country, but it's a whole other world to live in a country for an extended stay.
I will look forward to the posts you will have in say... a year or so from now.

Bluecanary said...

Yes, the culture shock time will be very interesting to hear about. It's like being a kid now, but culture adolescence will set on quick.