From CBC:
“U.S. plans to allow importing
prescription drugs from Canada”
The administration of U.S.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday it will set up a system to allow
Americans to legally import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada,
weakening a longstanding ban that had stood as a top priority for the
politically powerful pharmaceutical industry. Health and Human Services
Secretary Alex Azar made the announcement Wednesday morning. Previous administrations
had sided with the industry on importation, echoing its concerns that it could
expose patients to risks from counterfeit or substandard medications. Azar, a
former drug industry executive, said U.S. patients will be able to import
medications safely and effectively, with oversight from the Food and Drug
Administration. The administration's proposal would allow states, wholesalers
and pharmacists to get FDA approval to import certain medications that are also
available in the U.S. It's unclear how soon consumers will see results. Most
patients take affordable generic drugs to manage conditions such as high blood
pressure or elevated blood sugars. But polls show concern about the prices of
breakthrough medications for intractable illnesses like cancer or hepatitis C
infection, whose costs can run to $100,000 US or more. And long-available drugs
like insulin have also seen price increases that have forced some people with
diabetes to ration their own doses. "For too long, American patients have
been paying exorbitantly high prices for prescription drugs that are made
available to other countries at lower prices," Azar said in a statement
that credited Trump for pushing the idea. Concern over this type of move has
prompted more than a dozen organizations to urge the Canadian government to
safeguard Canada's drug supply. In a letter issued last week, 15 groups
representing patients, health professionals, hospitals and pharmacists warned
Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor of the potential for increasing drug
shortages.
Canadian pharmacists sound the
alarm
The Canadian Pharmacists
Association was one of the signatories to that letter, and spokesperson Joelle
Walker says her organization has expressed concerns "for a number of
months, and even years," about the potential for importation of
medications into the U.S., "because our market size is not equipped to
supply another market that's 10 times our size. "We already know that
Canadians suffer from serious drug supply issues and shortages," Walker
told CBC News in response to Wednesday's announcement. "One in four
Canadians report [in a national survey conducted last November] that they have
experienced a drug shortage, either personally or a family member, and
pharmacists from across the country are saying that shortages have vastly
increased in the last three to five years, so our supply chain is already not
consistent in Canada. "This has the potential to really put a lot of
pressure on the availability of medications in Canada," whether through
wholesale imports or individual purchases, said Walker. Walker said the
Canadian government should be pro-active in coming up with a plan to respond to
the development. "Our concern is that this is moving really quickly in the
United States," she said, adding Canada should consider restricting the
expanded importation of medication from the U.S. "before things pass in
the United States and we're no longer in a position to control it as
easily."
Senate bill would cap costs
The Trump administration's move
comes as the industry is facing a crescendo of consumer complaints over prices,
as well as legislation from both parties in Congress to rein in costs. Trump is
supporting a Senate bill to cap medication costs for Medicare recipients and
require drugmakers to pay rebates to the program if price hikes exceed
inflation. Democrats in the House are pressing for a vote on a bill allowing
Medicare to directly negotiate prices on behalf of millions of seniors enrolled
in its prescription drug plan. Separately, the Trump administration is pursuing
a regulation that would tie what Medicare pays for drugs administered in
doctors' offices to lower international prices. The importation idea won praise
from a key lawmaker, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who is chairman of
the panel that oversees Medicare. Grassley said on Twitter that importation
would lower prescription drug costs, and all drugs from abroad must be verified
as safe by the FDA. He and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar
of Minnesota have a bill to facilitate importation. Eyeing his reelection
campaign, Trump has made lowering prescription drug prices one of his top
goals. As a candidate, he called for allowing Americans to import prescription
drugs, and recently he's backed a Florida law allowing state residents to gain
access to medications from Canada. Drug prices are lower in other economically
advanced countries because governments take a leading role in setting prices.
But in the U.S., Medicare is not permitted to negotiate with drug companies. Some
experts have been skeptical of allowing imports from Canada, partly from
concerns about whether Canadian suppliers have the capacity to meet the demands
of the much larger U.S. market. But consumer groups have strongly backed the
idea, arguing that it will pressure U.S. drugmakers to reduce their prices.
They also point out that the pharmaceutical industry is a global business and
many of the ingredients in medications sold in the U.S. are manufactured
abroad. AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, had pushed
hard for the Florida plan, saying it's possible to safely import lower-priced,
equally effective drugs and it would promote worldwide price competition. The
drug industry lobby, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, has
successfully blocked past efforts in Washington to allow importation. It argues
that patients would be at risk of receiving counterfeit or adulterated
medications.
^ Hopefully this will force
American pharmaceutical companies to start charging less for their medicines. They have been allowed to inflate live-saving medicines for too long. I
do think that it will make the already wide-spread shortage in Canada much
worse though. Hopefully the threat of this bill will make it so Americans will start paying lower prices within the US without making the medicine shortage in Canada even worse than it is. ^
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