US pharmacists cleared to buy in cheap drugs from Canada

The US Senate has approved a proposal that would allow licensed pharmacists and drug wholesalers to import prescription drugs from Canada that are already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Canadian prices for many drugs range from 25% to 80% lower than those set for the same drugs by the US Congress and the manufacturers. Some US citizens already travel to Canada to buy the drugs or use the internet to import them. But this proposal is designed to make it easier for them to get access to the drugs.

Writing in the New York Times on 23 June, journalist Robin Toner said that “the fight over prescription drug benefits has become a proxy for the larger struggle over health care itself,” with “millions of elderly struggling to cope, largely on their own, with soaring drug costs.”

Medicare beneficiaries (people aged over 65) spent an average of $813 (£516; €806) of their own money on prescription drugs in 2000 and $928 in 2001 and are spending $1051 in 2002, reports the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health research group. Toner, who visited senior citizens' centres with Congressional candidates, says the oldest citizens are among the most vulnerable, with an estimated 45% of those aged 85 or older having no coverage for prescription drugs. Elderly Americans make up 13% of the population but account for 34% of prescriptions.

One non-profit agency that helps US citizens order drugs from a Canadian pharmacy is the Physicians Dispensing Program of Pittsburgh, which requires patients to obtain a doctor's approval for purchases. It cites the US and Canadian prices (all in US dollars, for March 2002) for 100 pills of each drug as: Celebrex (celecoxib) 200 mg priced at $279.59 in the United States and $118.59 in Canada; Zocor (simvastatin) 20 mg at $430.30 and $181.12; and tamoxifen 20 mg at $383.97 and $40.22.

The new proposal is said to have broad support in the House (the Senate vote was 69 to 30). Since President Bush endorsed the concept in his 2000 electoral campaign, chances of eventual passage are good.

The measure applies only to drugs from Canada, although a similar proposal was passed by Congress in 2000 that allowed imports from 26 countries, including Japan and members of the European Union. But both the Bush and the Clinton administrations refused to issue rules to carry out that law, because they said they could not certify that the plan would be safe or would save money for consumers. Some senators, on the other hand, said the safety risks of the new plan were minimal because Canada has a drug regulation system similar to that in the United States.

But other senators and the drug companies contend that Canada could become a conduit for counterfeit and contaminated drugs.