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DRUG-TRADE CHALLENGE
The backlash was inevitable. Now
that importing lower-cost drugs from Canada has
become so popular among Americans, residents north
of the border are worried that their drug supply is
being raided by their southern neighbors, putting
Canadians at risk of shortages of needed medicines.
The fear may not be warranted, but this whole
situation could be avoided if U.S. officials would
negotiate lower drug prices for their citizens just
like other developed countries do.
It is estimated that 65 million Americans, many
of them elderly, can't afford prescription drugs in
the United States. Increasingly, they are turning to
Canada, often through Internet-based pharmacies. An
estimated $1 billion worth of prescription drugs are
sent from Canada to the United States each year.
Because the Canadian government regulates drug
prices as part of its national health-care system,
prices are often half that in the United States for
the same medication.
Last month, Gov. John Baldacci asked the
Department of Health and Human Services for
permission to re-import drugs from Canada, which
would be distributed by the Penobscot Nation first
to the uninsured and underinsured and later to the
general population. Other states and municipalities
are importing drugs from Canada for
their employees to save money.
Now, Canadian groups representing seniors and
pharmacies are calling on their government to stop
such practices. "I don't want to see our health
system decimated by forcing Canadians to compete
with American for our drug supply," Lothar Dueck,
president of the Coalition for Manitoba Pharmacy,
said recently. He said his pharmacy, in a small town
near the U.S. border, has run out of some drugs and
must negotiate with colleagues to get enough of
others for his patients. This is because some large
U.S. drug makers have cut supplies to pharmacies
they suspect of selling medicines to Americans.
Canadian health officials say that
bargain-hunting American customers do not threaten
the country's drug supply.
Still, the United States should solve this
problem on its own without raiding Canadian medicine
chests. Instead, Congress passed a Medicare reform
bill last year that forbid the federal government
from negotiating lower drugs prices. Efforts are
under way to reverse that ban. Sen. Olympia Snowe
and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon introduced legislation
earlier this year that would give the HHS secretary
authority to negotiate lower drug prices for
participants in the Medicare program.
In the interim, this measure would legalize
re-importation and expand it to include other
countries, such as Britain and Australia, to reduce
the reliance on Canada while creating a broader
marketplace. A bill sponsored by Maine Reps. Mike
Michaud and Tom Allen would also reverse the
re-importation ban for Medicare.
Canadian fears of drug shortages may be
overblown, but if the United States does not begin
to negotiate prices, expect more conflict over the
increasing popular cross-border drug trade.
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