Canada may ban bulk exports of drugs to the United States

May 10 2005

In a move to forestall a potential drug shortage in Canada, Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh, is contemplating imposing a ban on bulk exports of drugs to the United States.

A coalition representing pharmacists, doctors and patients had warned earlier in the week that Canada could suffer disastrous drug shortages if U.S. legislators legalize bulk imports.

According to Dosanjh the possibility that the U.S. Congress will soon pass legislation allowing unlimited pharmaceutical imports from Canada, is very real and it this will mean an overwhelming demand for Canadian medicines.

The minister says one of the options he is looking at is the possibility of banning bulk exports to the United States, which would be easier from a legal perspective than to shut down the Internet pharmacy.

Most medicines are cheaper in Canada because prices are regulated by the Patent Medicines Prices Review Board, and this has led to a thriving cross-border trade mainly conducted through the Internet.

He says the ban should also take care of the problem of doctors who sign Internet prescriptions without seeing the patients concerned, known as co-signing. Professional associations in some provinces have penalized doctors who do this.

Dosanjh says that Alberta in particular has already moved to outline the fact that co-signing is unethical, and he feels this issue will eventually deal with itself without requiring any outside intervention.

He says bulk exports are more dangerous because they could lead to an increase in prices in Canada due to the shortage of supply and may in fact endanger and threaten Canada's price-control regime.

Jeff Poston, executive director of the Canadian Pharmacists Association says Canada is "sleepwalking toward a calamity" and if U.S. politicians throw the drug import doors wide open, the trade in pharmaceuticals could overwhelm Canada's price-control system.

The Canadian International Pharmacy Association, representing pharmacists involved in the Internet trade, denies any risk of shortages, its executive director, David Mackay, is on record as saying that drug manufacturers around the world are capable of producing as much medicine as needed in North America.

Mackay accuses the anti-Internet pharmacy lobby of being a front for "big pharma."