TSCL - Serving Seniors For 10 Years - Battle Over Drug Re-importation Grows in Senate

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TSCL - Serving Seniors For 10 Years - Battle Over Drug Re-importation Grows in Senate

A battle over prescription drug ï¿½re-importationï¿½ is shaping up in the Senate. The question no longer is over whether to allow the importation of less costly drugs from Canada and other countries, but how to do so.
A clash is developing over certain provisions in a bipartisan drug re-importation bill, S. 2328, introduced by Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, and co-sponsored by Senators Olympia Snowe of Maine, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and John McCain of Arizona, among others. Its provisions would prevent drug manufacturers from restricting the wholesale supplies of certain drugs to countries that ship drugs to U.S. consumers. Currently, several big drug companies, including Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and others, have imposed such supply limits. A bill recently introduced by Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire contains no such prohibition. It would allow the supply curbs to remain in place.

"The Gregg bill is not aggressive enough to deal with the mischief that the pharmaceutical companies might do to Canada and other countries in terms of limiting their supplies,ï¿½ said Representative Gil Gutknecht of Minnesota in a recent article appearing in The Boston Globe. Congressman Gutknecht is the primary sponsor of reimportation legislation (H.R.2427) that passed in the House last July.
The Gregg bill would also allow Canadian pharmacies to ship drugs from other countries through Canada for the purpose of selling to U.S. consumers. But that practice is illegal under Canadian law, and thus the provision would offer no benefit to U.S. consumers, according to David MacKay, executive director of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association.

The bipartisan Dorgan bill would allow licensed pharmacists and wholesalers to import drugs from Canada within 90 days after the bill becomes law. After a year they could import drugs from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland and any country that was a member of the European Union as of January 1, 2003.

Importation of drugs from Canada has grown to a $700 million-a-year business, The Boston Globe reports. Although the practice is technically illegal, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not tried to stop individual consumers ï¿½ yet.

Proponents of the bipartisan legislation want to force a vote on the issue before the November elections. TSCL endorses the bipartisan bill, S. 2328, and believes that strong provisions are needed to ensure that drug manufacturers cannot charge higher prices or restrict supplies to American importers. The proposed legislation would give the government new power to punish drug companies that do so as a violation of antitrust law.

Sources: ï¿½Senate Battle Looms Over Drug Imports,ï¿½ Christopher Rowland, The Boston Globe, June 5, 2004. ï¿½Group of Senators Agrees on Drug Imports,ï¿½ Robert Pear, The New York Times, April 22, 2004.

July 2004