Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - [Homestead] Protecting drug companies from price competition

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Protecting drug companies from price competition
  • Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 20:09:24 -0700


chicagotribune.com <http://www.chicagotribune.com/> >> Editorials <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion>
------------------------------------------------------------------------



Shielding the drug industry

Published October 1, 2004

Last month Peter Rost, a vice president of marketing for Pfizer Inc., broke ranks with the drug industry and his employer by publicly endorsing a proposal in Maryland's Montgomery County to allow its employees to buy cheaper drugs from Canada. Rost disputed industry claims that reimportation would pose a public health risk. "The real concern about safety is about people who do not take drugs because they cannot afford it," he said.

Rost--who made it clear that he was speaking only for himself, not Pfizer--joins a growing number of city and state officials across the country arguing for reimportation. Only a few months ago, a new law seemed inevitable. Even Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson suggested that was so. Unfortunately, "inevitable" may not mean any time soon.

Competing reimportation bills have been bottled up in the Senate for months. And Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee isn't likely to allow a debate or vote before the election. Last month he argued that with only a few weeks left in the session and other pressing issues, there wasn't enough time for a full debate.

While Congress dithers, states and cities skirt if not break the law by helping seniors and others take advantage of lower prescription-drug prices in Canada. One such program is supposed to be introduced soon in Illinois.

The lack of progress is frustrating. Last spring, at his confirmation hearings, Medicare chief Mark McClellan promised to help develop legislation to allow imports of lower-cost prescription drugs with safeguards to protect consumers. Frist said that the Senate "will begin a process for developing proposals that would allow for the safe reimportation of FDA-approved prescription drugs." But Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said recently that the process had "led to nothing."

No wonder some politicians are so frustrated that they're openly challenging the Food and Drug Administration in announcing plans to help consumers link to pharmacies in Canada and elsewhere.

Opponents of reimportation have argued that it would open America's borders to a flood of tainted drugs, and that the FDA could not guarantee the safety or purity of such imported drugs. That argument isn't convincing. Many drugs are manufactured abroad, and the FDA inspects those factories and ensures that drugs are shipped to America without tampering. That system could be expanded, using fees paid by those who import or export the drugs.

Pfizer execs are asserting that Rost "has no qualifications to speak on importation" and emphasize that he is not speaking for the company. But his support for reimportation resonates in Illinois, where 67 percent of registered voters support Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan to help residents buy prescription drugs from Canada, Ireland and England, according to a recent Tribune/WGN-TV poll. A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed about 8 in 10 Medicare recipients support allowing Americans to buy drugs from Canada if they can get a lower price. The same study showed more than 6 in 10 don't believe such a system would expose Americans to unsafe medicines from other countries.

It seems terribly clear that congressional leaders have one intention here: protecting their heavy campaign contributors in the drug industry from competition. This issue deserves a vote. The stalling has to stop.




  • [Homestead] Protecting drug companies from price competition, Tvoivozhd, 10/01/2004

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page