AEGiS-WSJ: Canadians Fear Pressure in U.S. For Drug Imports

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Canadians Fear Pressure in U.S. For Drug Imports

Wall Street Journal - October 19, 2004
Christopher J. Chipello, chris.chipello@wsj.com

MONTREAL - Growing political pressure in the U.S. for freer imports of low-price drugs from Canada is increasing concern among Canadians that the cross-border trade will lead to drug shortages or higher prices up north.

A group of Canadian health-lobby organizations representing patients, senior citizens and pharmacists called on Ottawa to ban the sale of drugs to the U.S. by Canadian online pharmacies -- a business that officials of the industry estimate at as much as $1 billion a year.

"Cross-border Internet pharmacies are not the solution, short or long term, to the problem of high drug costs in the U.S.," said Louise Binder, chairman of the Canadian Treatment Action Council, a group that represents AIDS patients. When U.S. politicians such as Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry advocate broader access to Canadian drugs, "they are talking about raiding our medicine cabinet," she told reporters in Toronto.

So far, the government has resisted calls for intervention in the cross-border trade. A spokesman for Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said that Ottawa, along with the provinces and health-care professionals, continues to closely monitor domestic drug supplies. But "there is no evidence at this point that there is any risk to the safety of the drugs or to the security of supply for Canadians," he said.

Prescription drugs are often significantly more costly in the U.S. than in Canada, where the prices of patented drugs are regulated. But members of the Canadian coalition opposing drug exports to the U.S. warned that "drug-importation legislation in the U.S. Congress and surging demand from Americans are putting pressure on Canadian prices to rise."

Officials of the Internet drug industry, for their part, say they are keenly aware of the limits to the amount of drugs they can supply to the huge U.S. market without causing problems for Canada's 32 million residents. "We're not about to conduct this trade on the backs of Canadians," said David MacKay, executive director of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, which represents online pharmacies.

While the online pharmacies' association seeks to serve individual U.S. customers, it reaffirmed last month a policy of not selling drugs to state or city governments, Mr. MacKay said.

That policy doesn't affect programs that several states have set up to provide residents with lists of recommended Canadian online pharmacies. But it does preclude exporting to any states that may decide to pay directly for imported drugs or reimburse patients for them, Mr. MacKay said. Illinois, for example, has indicated it has considered such a move eventually, he said. The current Illinois program, however, isn't a problem because it is similar to those of other states, such as Minnesota, that provide only a "passive endorsement" for Canadian Internet pharmacies, Mr. MacKay said.

A spokeswoman for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich confirmed that the state's current program, known as I-SaveRx, hasn't been affected by the Canadian online industry association's policy. "None of our pharmacies want out, and in fact other pharmacies want in," she said.

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