Posted on 10/17/2004 2:38:36 PM PDT by John Jorsett
More than 30 Canadian internet pharmacies have decided not to accept bulk orders of prescription drugs from US states and municipalities.
The move delivers a potentially serious setback to US politicians most notably Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry campaigning to give Americans easier access to cheap drugs from Canada.
Mr Kerry has argued that opening the US to Canadian imports could help lower the costs of prescription drugs for elderly Americans. Such reimportation has become one of the points of difference between him and President George W. Bush during the election campaign.
But growing concern in Canada that growing exports to the US could lead to rising prices and shortages north of the border has prompted the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (Cipa), whose members include several of the biggest internet and mail-order drugstores, to act. “We don't want to give Americans the impression that we have unlimited supply for them to tap into on a commercial basis,” said David Mackay, the association's executive director. Americans, he added, “can't get everything from Canada. We can't be your complete drugstore”.
Prescription drug prices are significantly lower in Canada than the US, because of price controls and bulk buying by the 10 provinces. Individual Americans have crossed the border for years to buy cheap medicines, but the internet and spiralling healthcare costs in the US have led to a wider movement for states and cities to sourcethe drugs they need from Canada. Several states, such as Minnesota and New Hampshire, have set up websites directing residents to approved pharmacies in Canada. Cipa members would continue to service these customers, Mr Mackay said, but would not deal with states such as Illinois and Wisconsin that have proposed turning over their entire supply system to a Canadian internet pharmacy.
Cipa members make up about a quarter of the roughly 150 internet pharmacies operating in Canada, raising the question whether others will follow its lead. Mr Mackay said discussion had been heated at an all-day meeting of Cipa last month at which the new policy was approved. With pharmaceutical manufacturers seeking to restrict supplies and the US Congressional Budget Office recently saying that reimportation from Canada would have a “negligible” impact on US drugs spending, the internet pharmacies have already had difficulty meeting demand from south of the border.
Several have set up alliances with pharmacies in other countries. A sharp rise in the Canadian dollar has also squeezed profits.
Ujjal Dosanjh, Canada's health minister, said over the weekend that he was not concerned “at this point” either about domestic shortages or the safety of Canadian medicines.
Still, public opinion appears to be gradually turning against the online operators. Canadian Treatment Action Council, a lobby group representing pharmacists and patients, is due to speak out today against drug exports to the US.
Yep. The Canadian gov't negotiates the price and has the companies over a barrel. They don't mind, the Canadian market is tiny and they'll recoup the loss in the US market. In fact, if it happens, Canadian prices will shoot up and the aggregate price will sneak down a bit, from the US perspective.
there is some canadian guy on FR who insists that canada pays the drug companies the same price as they get in the US - but then subsidizes the cost of them through their socialized medical system, so the end consumer sees a lower cost at retail. he says that what the re-importation really does - is take money from the canadian taxpayer subsidy.
not sure what to make of his explanation, we were with him on another thread about this.
If pill buyers flock en masse to Canadian drugs, you can be damn sure those drugs will not be American made. They'll be lookalikes from Thailand, Mexico, or Nairobi.
Not exactly. See my example above.
The issue is that the cost of production does not equal the cost of the drug, so it makes sense for the drug company (and for U.S. consumers, as well) to sell the drug for anything above the marginal cost of production.
Sure, they'd be all for it, until they started dying. Of course, then their families can start to sue.
It's only a matter of time before someone dies of bad re-imported drugs and then wants to sue the state for allowing it to be legal. In that case, I think they should just send Gov. Blago(IL) to jail. If he's going to publicly break the law, then that's where he belongs.
Precisely.
It's funny how, as simple as the law of supply and demand is, it always takes the Left by surprise.
I'm not familiar with benedryl but some OTC drugs are different in Canada than the US. Not all of the drugs are approved in Canada that are approved in the US so the formulas will differ between the two countries.
My relatives from California always stock up on pain killers with codeine when they visit Canada because it is available over the counter here.
Apparently in California you need to have a prescription and it is much more expensive.
I've always questioned the practicality of reimportation. Canada has only a small fraction of the population of the U.S. How could their supply be sufficient to provide both themselves and the U.S. with prescription drugs?
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