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| Great White North |
| Illinois wants Canadian drugs (no, not cannabis) |
| 2003-09-16 |
| Socialized health care ain’t all that bad it seems. President George W. Bush is facing open and growing defiance over the cost of prescription drugs in this country after the state of Illinois said it was poised to begin buying cheaper medicines from Canada. Wohooo! Time to pick up some Canadian bio-stocks. The state, the fifth-most populous in the country, would be the largest market to join the buy-Canada groundswell, setting up an epic battle between cash-strapped state and local jurisdictions and a White House which seems determined to protect the profits of U.S. drug makers. California has indicated it, too, would move to purchase drugs for state employees from Canada, but has been sternly warned by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) it would be breaking the law because the safety of reimported prescription drugs can’t be guaranteed. The city of Springfield, Mass., has already enrolled 800 city employees in a voluntary program in which their prescription drugs are purchased through a Canadian wholesaler. And according to some estimates, 10 million Americans are already buying their medication from Canada. The move to Canadian drug purchases, either through storefront facilitators or over the Internet, has mushroomed since seniors joined bus tours to cross the border for drug-buying trips 10 years ago. "Welcome to Canada! On your left, the much more prettier side of the Niagara Falls, and on your right, Shopper’s Drug Mart. On average, drugs in the U.S. — the only industrialized nation where manufacturers set the price unfettered by government regulation — are 67-per-cent more expensive than in Canada. If Illinois, following a 90-day study, moves to purchase its drugs for 240,000 state employees and retirees, it would save the state tens of millions of dollars in benefit costs. But it could eventually bump up prescription-drug prices in Canada. Damn. I knew it was too good to be true. That fear stems from moves by four of the world’s largest drug makers to begin choking off supplies to Canadian pharmacies which reimport drugs to American consumers. If a national trend toward buying Canadian continues, the supplies are expected to be further curtailed, and big drug companies on this side of the border can put pressure on Canadian prices by controlling supply. Aha, plan B. Sometimes I wonder why we even bother with NAFTA. This unexpected political grenade for Bush as he begins his 2004 re-election campaign stems from a stunning vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in July, when Congress ignored drug-industry lobbying and voted to allow reimportation of Canadian drugs. But Bush, whose Republican party received $31.3 million from the prescription-drug industry in the 2000 and 2002 elections, has threatened to veto any reimportation legislation, and 53 senators signed a letter circulated by the drug industry opposing the House legislation. For $31mil I will sign anything too. The drug industry in this country says it needs profits to channel the money back into research, but it spent $91.4 million on 675 lobbyists to take its case to legislators in 2001. Good point. The research bit I understand...but the lobbying is another story. "The skyrocketing cost of prescription medications is a huge burden for consumers and for taxpayers who help pay for state employees’ health costs," Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich said. "Anything we can do that safely and effectively reduces those costs is definitely worth looking into. I am optimistic we can set a precedent other states can follow." By day’s end, SeniorMedications.com was already advertising on the Internet, welcoming Illinois seniors to order their drugs from Winnipeg’s McGregor Clinic Pharmacy. Another Winnipeg firm, called American Drug Club, opened its fourth Michigan outlet yesterday in Lansing. The stores are touted as low-cost prescription assistance centres. Staff provide price information to customers and help them order drugs from Canadian pharmacies. The Lansing outlet’s president, Robert Zeineh, a Detroit paramedic, told Associated Press his mission is to connect mid-Michigan’s uninsured and underinsured with less-costly Canadian prescription drugs. So there you have it. Socialized or not, the answer is somwhere in between. |
| Posted by:Rafael |
| #6 John Anderson, That's why I would only sell innovative medicine directly in the US market. Let an exporter pay for a volume discount if they want, but the overall economics will wash out any advantage to re-import. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-16 10:03:08 PM |
| #5 These "buy Canadian drugs" programs are buying US drugs back, that is what is meant by 'cheaper': if it was Canadian drugs, no problem... Canada and others have been using the size of their bulk-buying budget and the threat of world opinion ("They won't sell our sick people life-saving medicine!") to get prices cut: not that bad for, say, pillowcases which haven't and won't be changed or superceded - but yes, R&D costs are what get from such sales of medicine. |
| Posted by: John Anderson 2003-9-16 9:42:44 PM |
| #4 --But it could eventually bump up prescription-drug prices in Canada.-- Bout time they started paying their fair share. Now if we could get *the world* led by phrawnce...... |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-9-16 5:55:03 PM |
| #3 If I were making a new and inovative medicine, I would only sell it in the US where I could se the price until my patent expired. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-16 5:10:22 PM |
| #2 Sometimes I wish English was a little more precise. When they ask me "Do you have drugs" I never know whether they mean aspirin or heroin... |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-9-16 4:29:36 PM |
| #1 BTW, there's a bit more to the story at the link. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2003-9-16 1:05:38 PM |