Madame X in Manabí Province Needs Meds and Fast

Not sure if this is still an issue, but thought I would tell you how my husband handles his meds here.  We live in manta and he has a 10 year kidney transplant, his only functioning kidney.  He sees occasionally a nephrologist who is the head at hospital metropolitano in Quito. The Dr there writes his prescriptions 1 in Spanish and 1 in English.  He takes many meds and 2 anti rejection meds twice a day.  One of the reasons why we moved here.  They're not available in manta and very expensive in Quito.  He orders them from a Canadian pharmacy who sources through a pharmacy in India.  Don't be alarmed as the US meds are also manufactured in India.  They also have generics in India that of course are not allowed in the States.  He orders every 2 months, as you are allowed to bring in 60 days worth of meds.  Initially we shipped through the local post office but ran into some customs issues there that our attorney handled for us with a notarized letter.  However, the delays were insane.  So he ships through DHL from India.  At first it took a bit for them to understand he couldn't get them here in manta and that they are a matter of life or death.  The caveat is that there has to be a stamped paid invoice in the box along with a copy of his Ecuadorean prescription.  The box is opened every time by customs here, but DHL knows where we live now and we have no problems.  They even pay the customs fees up front.  So we pay the online $45 fee plus a small amount of duty.  The guy at the Indian pharmacy puts a lower amount paid invoice in the box than we actually pay for the meds that drastically reduces the taxes.  For delivery from customs in Ecuador to our house in manta, which is routed to DHL in GYE, we pay about $60.  The cost of the meds are less than a third in the US and less than half than Quito.  So you can get meds here if they don't have them.  That's been our experience with that.  The more common meds we buy locally.