Now OK to get prescription drugs from Canada, but is it really?

Oct 5 2006

According to the consumer group that sponsored "Rx Express" trains to Canada, the U.S. Customs announcement that it will no longer seize prescription drugs being shipped to the U.S. is not the solution that patients need.

The comment follows the revelation that the U.S. federal government plans to halt the crackdown on discount drugs mailed from Canadian pharmacies to U.S. customers, effectively removing a significant hurdle to Americans buying cheaper medications from abroad.

Customs officials apparently sent an e-mail to some members of Congress saying it would abandon the seizure policy next week.

In its place Customs will apparently sample and test mail-order medications for counterfeits and ineffective ingredients on "randomly generated days throughout the fiscal year."

This reversal in policy by the Department of Homeland Security, which operates U.S. Customs and Border Protection, will reassure senior citizens and other consumers that drugs purchased from Canadian mail-order houses will be confiscated.

Many low-income seniors were even considering going without needed medications.

It seems that drugs such as Lipitor and Fosamax, can be 30 percent to 80 percent cheaper in Canada and other countries.

The Canadian shipments had been confiscated on so-called safety grounds, but consumer advocates and others have strenuously argued that the crackdown was an effort to limit competition in the pharmaceutical market and force seniors on fixed incomes to sign up for new Medicare plans and pay higher prices for drugs from U.S. pharmacies.

Jerry Flanagan of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) says the U.S. should be importing Canadian drug policy, not Canadian drugs.

He says politicians know that Canada cannot be America's medicine cabinet and today's announcement will do little to lower the cost of prescription drugs for most Americans.

Canadian drugs are cheaper because unlike the U.S. the Department of Veterans Affairs, Canada saves 30 to 80 percent and more off the cost of U.S. made drugs by negotiating bulk discounts on behalf of all patients.

The Rx Express trips taking seniors to Canada to buy cheaper prescription drugs demonstrated the failure of U.S. politicians to make prescription drugs available at reasonable prices in the U.S. and the FTCR has labelled the latest announcement a "PR move" that fails to challenge the drug companies' overcharging of American patients.

Flanagan says the States must adopt a national prescription drug bulk purchasing program that will make lower cost prescription drugs available at local U.S. pharmacies.