Dorga, Snowe, McCain, Stabenow Introduce Bipartisan Prescription Drug Importation Bill

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced critical drug importation legislation today that will reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the United States. The Senators said their legislation, the “Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act,” will bring consumers immediate relief and will ultimately force the pharmaceutical industry to lower drug prices in the United States.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would save American consumers $50 billion over the next decade, including more than $10 billion in federal government savings.

The bill allows U.S.-licensed pharmacies and drug wholesalers to import FDA-approved medications from Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan and pass along the savings to American customers. This approach will allow Americans to benefit from prices in these countries, which are 35 to 55 percent lower than in the U.S., while still enabling consumers to receive medications at a local pharmacy. The legislation would also allow individual consumers to purchase prescription drugs for personal use from safe, reliable, FDA-inspected Canadian pharmacies.

The legislation contains strong safeguards to prohibit drug counterfeiting or any other practices that would put the consumer at risk, and applies only to FDA-approved prescription drugs produced in FDA-approved plants from countries with comparable safety standards.

Dorgan and Snowe introduced bipartisan legislation that had over 30 Senate co-sponsors in the last session of Congress, including President Obama and Senator John McCain.

The President signaled support for this legislation, stating in the 2010 Budget proposal, “The Budget supports the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) new efforts to allow Americans to buy safe and effective drugs from other countries...”

“This is a common sense measure that will save both everyday Americans and the federal government billions of dollars, and improve the overall health of millions of people,” said Dorgan. “The U.S. consumers are paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, and that’s unfair. By allowing access to identical, less expensive FDA-approved prescription drugs, we will be providing some relief to the American consumers, and force pharmaceutical companies to re-price their prescription drugs here in the U.S.”

“As Americans struggle with increasing health care costs during the deepest recession since World War II, more and more individuals are forced to skip doses or split pills, neglecting their health needs to keep food on the table,” said Senator Snowe, a member of the Health Subcommittee. “By implementing a safe prescription drug importation program, we will increase competition within the domestic prescription drug market which, in turn, will ensure more Americans have access to safe and affordable medications. While we still have much to do to ensure universal access to health care, no solution will be sustainable if we do not address the fact that our health costs are approximately double that of other industrialized nations. This bill takes a critical step to reduce those costs to make affordable access a reality.”

“For far too long Americans have seen health care costs – especially prescription drug costs – increase year after year,” said Senator John McCain. “Re-importation legislation would allow access to safe and effective prescription drugs at much lower prices than are available in the United States. If enacted, the legislation will provide the much needed relief to American families, especially seniors and others on fixed incomes, who are facing tough economic times.”

“This legislation provides a safe and secure framework to allow our government to help citizens and businesses lower their health care costs. We in Michigan know too well the price discrepancy between U.S. and Canadian drugs,” Stabenow said. “Across Michigan’s three bridges to Canada, my constituents could buy safe, FDA-approved drugs at a fraction of the cost compared to their neighborhood pharmacy. Unfortunately, no one except the drug companies can import prescription drugs. Pharmacists in my state would like to be able to do business with their counterparts in Canada and other industrialized nations so that they can offer their customers medicine at the best prices.”

Great news, since Rx brand drugs cost so little in other countries.

Great for your wallet right now. BUT- The American market and its patent protection are 100% of the reason that there is any medical research at all. Even foreign companies that develop new drugs do it for the American market.If we substitute foreign acquired drugs we weaken and ultimately destroy the engine of medical research. And if you think well that's okay, we are at such a high level of medicine right now, we can afford to say "thus far and no farther," well, there is the problem of antibiotics. Bacteria and viruses are living creatures and they mutate and antibiotics lose their effectiveness over time and have to be replaced. That requires expensive medical research. If a company cannot make its research expenses back with a period of monopoly patent protection, new drugs- new antibiotics- will not be produced and after a time we are back to about 1910 medically. Without effective antibiotics, every disease is far more potentially fatal and things we take for granted, like knee replacements' success will be measured by survival rates and mostly won't be done at all. Every sort of medical operation will carry a much higher fatality rate. Hospitals will truly be places to die.

Nonsense. In many cases, foreign governments are dictating prices to the drug companies if they want to sell them in their countries. If they then sell them in the US market competing against the drug manufacturers who developed them, the unintended consequence will be for the drug companies to reduce supply and to invest less money in developing new ones. I want the drug companies to be in control of their own products, not the government.

Pharma, and pharma alone, has the special monopoly privilege of federal legislation preventing consumers from shopping around for their products.

Source please. And there are reasons for such controls, which have to do with public safety.

There are plenty of US products that are cheaper overseas than they are here, mainly due to the fact that the products would not be competitive in poorer markets. I can buy a pair of Nike snearkers cheaper in Seoul than I can here. Do you think Nike would allow its dealers in Seoul to sell their sneakers here?

Foreign countries do not "dictate prices to drug companies". Single-payer countries like Canada simply buy large quantities of drugs at once. They choose not to buy if they don't like the price, just as I do when I buy bulk toilet paper at Walmart. Market forces being what they are, drug companies sell for less to these bulk buyers, just like any other business. Nobody is being "dictated to" here, except for the American consumer, who has to bend over and accept a monopoly high price for prescriptions.

I can buy a pair of Nike sneakers cheaper in Seoul than I can here. Do you think Nike would allow its dealers in Seoul to sell their sneakers here?

The only leverage Nike, or any other company has when it sells cheaper overseas is threatening to cancel its contract with the foreign customer if it sells out of its designated region. The US government does nothing to enforce the arrangement. But because the Internet acts as the great disintermediator, smoothing markets for goods all over the world, such arrangements are notoriously 'leaky'. An American (or other) consumer can always find some place willing to sell at the lowest price. The result is that American consumers enjoy the lowest prices in the world for most consumer goods, including those produced overseas. Asian electronics, cars, and cameras sell for less in the US than they do in their own countries. Such is the power of the marketplace.

Pharma sales are the exception: US law explicitly forbids shopping around by consumers, which is precisely why McCain is trying to get drug importation legalized. If pharma weren't a special case, there would be no need for this bill. And "public safety", my rosy pink butt. Since we're talking about the FDA-approved real thing here, not knockoffs, there is no differential in safety.

You seem to have some idealized view of how international trade works. FYI: We are not playing on an even playing field. Foreign governments are manipulating currencies and subsidizing exports to make them more attractive to the American consumer. And they use various ways of making imports from the US more expensive and less attractive to their own consumers. It is why we have such huge trade deficits with these countries.

Negotiated Prices. But what about the market power that governments and quasi-governmental entities in Canada and the United States exercise by bulk buying? In the United States, for example, the Department of Veterans Affairs, buying on behalf of veterans, pays the lowest prices. State Medicaid programs, acting on behalf of their enrollees, typically pay the next lowest. If we allow the V.A. and Medicaid to use their clout to get discounts, how can we complain if the Canadian government chooses to bargain for lower prices on behalf of its own citizens?

The answer is that when Canada "bargains" with Pfizer or Eli Lilly it implicitly threatens to ignore the American companies' intellectual property rights. For example, if "negotiations" break down and the American company refuses to sell at the price Canada is asking, Canada reserves the right to ignore the drug patent and allow its domestic firms to produce a generic equivalent - a procedure called "compulsory licensing." In effect Canada says: Give us your drugs at a price we dictate or we'll ignore your patent and produce them ourselves.

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The result is that American consumers enjoy the lowest prices in the world for most consumer goods, including those produced overseas. Asian electronics, cars, and cameras sell for less in the US than they do in their own countries. Such is the power of the marketplace.

LOL. First, taxes have alot to do with the price of consumer goods abroad, e.g., VAT, excise, etc. It is why gasoline is so much more expensive in Europe for example and cheaper in China.

There are plenty of places around the globe that have cheaper prices for consumer goods, e.g., Dubai, Honk Kong, etc.

You should read the link I provided you on the situation in Canada. Should such a law pass, our drug companies would have to ramp up the production of brand name drugs for export so that they could be resold back to us at cheaper prices. Such a solution would hurt our drug industry and development of new drugs. There are also intellectual property and patent issues.

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