Posted on 06/16/2004 7:27:04 PM PDT by wagglebee
(Washington, DC): Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) has introduced “The Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2004” (S. 2328).
“The legislation should be referred to as the ‘Get Your Drugs from Who Knows Where Act,’ because no one — not the FDA, not the pharmacists, not the doctors, not Sen. Dorgan and certainly not the patients — will know where the imported drugs REALLY come from,” says Dr. Merrill Matthews, resident scholar at the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI).
Before the Senate takes up this legislation, the media should ask the senator some tough questions — and expect some honest answers.
1. Does Sen. Dorgan know that counterfeiting of prescription drugs is a booming industry outside the U.S., and that people routinely die in other countries because of counterfeits?
2. Is the senator aware that the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin recently discovered that three Canadian pharmacies listed on the state’s website sent state residents generics not approved by the FDA instead of the brand name drugs designated in their prescriptions?
3. Does the senator know that virtually all foreign Internet pharmacies require customers to agree to a disclaimer intended to absolve the company of liability should the drugs prove to be counterfeit, diluted or mishandled? Does the senator realize, by contrast, that U.S. pharmacies do not ask patients to agree to such documents and give up their right to sue?
4. Has the senator listened to the FDA, which asserts that once prescription drugs leave this country there is NO WAY for it monitor those drugs to ensure that, if they are shipped back to the U.S., they haven’t been mishandled? Does the senator understand that U.S. agencies like the FDA cannot force sovereign countries to adopt our standards for drug production, maintenance and transport?
5. Since there is no way to accurately determine if drugs have been properly manufactured and stored — including refrigeration for drugs such as insulin — then is Sen. Dorgan willing to exempt the pharmaceutical industry from liability should a reimported drug harm a patient?
If Congress passes legislation legalizing importation from Canada and other countries, it will open up a serious threat to Americans’ health. Anyone who thinks any differently simply hasn’t listened to the FDA, most pharmacists or the American Medical Association — that is, the experts who know something about medicine.
Which brings us to the final question: If patients are harmed as a result of Sen. Dorgan’s misguided legislation, will he stand up before the American people and accept responsibility for pushing through his bill against the strong objections of the vast majority of health care providers?
I suspect this institute is funded by the drug companies. In any event, it is BS. We are all going to die if we ever partake of drugs imported from Canada.
Senator Byron Dorgan is up for reelection this year. His opponent is Mike Liffig, a lawyer and jury consultant who argues cases in front of the N.D. Supreme Court. Liffig is intellilgent and articulate, but underfunded. Freepers from North Dakota may want to learn more about him.
Quite right, one of the secrets the media hides from us is the mass slaughter of Canadians by adulterated drugs. ;-)
IPI seems to be a fairly conservative organization. It's a shame to see them stoop to this kind of propaganda.
Drugs Manufactured by 8 Pharmaceutical Companies in Puerto Rico
I don't know whether they are conservative or just support their Republican benefactors in Congress....remember the medicare drug bill.
Drug re-importation from Canada is one of the biggest frauds that I've seen in my nearly four score years.
I hope that the idiots in the Congress pass this trash. The end result just might be that Canadians will end up paying what we pay for prescriptions.
Canada currently sets a price limit on prescription drugs. Our drug companies are making far less, maybe nothing, by selling drugs in Canada. If Canadian sources start sending drugs back to the U.S., our drug companies are threatening to ration the number of drugs that they send to Canada.
If those drugs come back here, the Canadians just might find themselves on the short end of the stick. And justifiably so.
We recently had alerts flying all over the network of poison centers about counterfeit Lipitor.
There is a boat load of money to be made in fake drugs.
...I don't take drugs, from Canada, I'm immortal? Thanks, I thought my days were numbered...
Does the author know that the major wholesalers are already importing drugs from certain territories with strict price controls for resale in the United States?
I know its off topic but is Dorgan the one in Moores new movie ? He shows a clip of a congress critter running down Bush and it looks like him.
...Always the money, fake or real, legalization of "all" drugs will be under the federal, not just states, laws. Why do you think they call it "war"???
Hard to tell from their website. They don't seem to provide any informtion on where their funding is coming from, or who their directors or members are. They seem to be on the conservative side of most of the issues they address, but this article reads like something Molly Ivins would write.
So, why should we fund their socialist system of price controls?
Not to any appreciable extent for some big pharma companies.
Suddenly, as if by magic, free trade is a bad thing (but only if its prescription drugs being freely traded).
Why not? We fund China's.
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