Lawsuit seeking to overturn FDA decision against prescription drug reimportation waiver dismissed

Aug 24 2006

U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams in Greenbelt, Md., on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Montgomery County, Md., that sought to overturn an FDA decision not to approve a waiver for a program to allow county employees to purchase lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada, the AP/Baltimore Sun reports (AP/Baltimore Sun, 8/24).

Last November, the county Council approved a bill that would have required county officials to allow employees to purchase medications from Canada without federal approval.

County Executive Douglas Duncan allowed the bill to take effect without his signature but decided to seek a waiver from FDA rather than implement the program (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/24).

FDA rejected the waiver request over concerns about the safety of medications purchased from Canada.

In the lawsuit, filed in February, the county argued that the FDA decision was arbitrary and that federal law allowed such waivers.

However, Williams approved a motion from FDA to dismiss the lawsuit.

He ruled that "FDA's denial of the county's waiver request was mandated by federal law" (AP/Baltimore Sun, 8/24). County Attorney Charles Thompson said that the county will review the decision and will consider an appeal (Marimow, Washington Post, 8/24).