April 2020 - Newsletter #6

Are Orders are Being Delivered?

If you've been reading our previous newsletters, you may already know that the delivery of affordable medications from abroad is being affected by disruptions in the worldwide prescription drug supply chain, limited air cargo transport capacity, customs clearance delays in destination countries and the ability of postal agencies to deliver to customer locations once packages have cleared customs - all due to the coronavirus crisis. For a detailed account of the situation, we encourage those who have not already done so to read about it here.

How Long It is Taking for Delivery

Because we were able to secure more inventory and air cargo space, we shipped 37% more orders last week than we were able to ship the week before, so many more customers will have received emails providing them with tracking numbers for their orders than the week before.

We can also confirm that shipped orders are being delivered. But the typical delivery time from the point of shipping is three to six weeks. This deviates substantially from transit times under normal circumstances but it is very good at this time considering the upheaval created in the worldwide logistics system that was caused by the coronavirus crisis grounding most of the world’s aircraft. The transit time depends on how long parcels queue before being onboarded to an available aircraft, delays at air transit hubs where parcels are transferred from one aircraft to another, backlogs for customs clearance and the ability of postal agencies to deliver parcels to your delivery address. While we observe that most parcels are being delivered within the three to six week post-shipping timeline quoted above, some parcels are arriving as quickly as a week after shipping while others can take more than six weeks.

We previously reported that 87% of orders are being shipped within seven days of order placement and 95% within 10 days. This is much longer than normal due to inventory procurement challenges. Add that to the transit time and the total approximate delivery time on most orders is currently four to seven weeks.

We are disappointed that it is impossible for us to get your vital prescription drugs to you any faster but given how tight the pharmaceutical supply is worldwide and how little air cargo space is available, this is best that can be done at this time. We are incredibly grateful to you, our customers, who have shown us the utmost patience, understanding and have been so respectful and appreciative toward our front-line representatives. It means a lot to them and the rest of our team who are working behind the scenes to make our customers and our operations among their top priorities during a time when they are also worried about their own families. Many of them have been working around the clock to ensure inventory keeps coming in, orders keep getting shipped and customers keep getting served.

The Risks Ahead

We hope the positive trend in being able to ship more orders more quickly will continue but we caution that the issues we've previously written about remain significant concerns. We will always be transparent with our customers so we must report that we are still not receiving inventory as quickly as we would like. If countries which manufacture pharmaceuticals, those from which we dispense orders from or deliver to, experience significant additional coronavirus infections (so-called, "second waves"), the ability to obtain inventory and air transport could deteriorate quickly. Customs clearances and mail carrier delivery could also become further backlogged.

Cost Increases

Inventory procurement challenges have meant our acquisition cost on many drugs has increased. We have been forced to raise the price on some of those drugs but have for the most part absorbed these additional costs to date. We also had to increase our shipping fee in order to secure the now much more expensive bookings on the limited aircraft that are still transporting small parcels. We expect and hope that these increases will be temporary.

Unfortunately, drug shortages caused by the coronavirus crisis have fueled a surge of counterfeit drugs. This continues to remind us about the importance of keeping the supply chain secure. We are acutely aware that timely delivery and the lowest possible price for your vital prescription medications is of critical importance. Yet, drug safety and authenticity is paramount. You can be assured that NorthWestPharmacy.com will not permit its customer orders to be fulfilled outside of its licensed, vetted and trusted suppliers even though it could be cheaper to do so. This is to continue to ensure the safety and authenticity of products you receive through us. If that means there is a procurement delay or higher costs during this time of crisis, then it is something for which there is no workaround. NorthWestPharmacy.com puts safety above expediency.

We encourage customers who may need medications in the coming months to place their orders now and those whose pending orders await shipping to keep their orders active and in the queue, which ensures they are locked in at the original price quoted at the time of placing the order. That's beneficial to you because we've absorbed most of the coronavirus-related increases in product acquisition costs that we've faced to date but may be unable to do so for much longer. Also, the limited pharmaceutical supply, available cargo space for transport and customs clearances will all be allocated to customers on a first-come-first-served basis and it may be quite some time before worldwide drug supply and delivery systems return to normal. Until such time, orders are no longer being billed at the time they are placed. We will hold your billing information but you won't be billed until your order is dispensed by our pharmacists and ready to be shipped. But, if for any reason you are unable to wait, you can cancel and you won't be billed for any item that has not been shipped.

NorthWestPharmacy.com is one of the largest and most established online pharmacies providing lower cost medications from abroad to customers worldwide. No competitor offering lower cost pharmaceuticals from abroad can match our supply and delivery capacity during this difficult time so please rest assured we are leveraging all our capacity to ensure orders reach customers as fast as possible in the circumstances.

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