http://www.freep.com/news/nw/drugimport22e_20041222.htm

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Study faults prescriptions filled abroad

Go generic, not to Canada, U.S. report concludes
December 22, 2004

BY TONY PUGH
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON -- Making imported drugs safe for Americans would cost the
U.S. government hundreds of millions of dollars a year and consumers
would see a savings of only about 1 percent, a federal task force said
Tuesday.

The task force also warned that legally importing prescription drugs
from countries with price controls, such as Canada, would cut drug
company profits, which are used to fund research and development,
resulting in three or four fewer innovative drug approvals each year.

The 13-member panel, chaired by Surgeon General Richard Carmona,
included representatives of several government agencies that oppose
prescription drugs from abroad. The report was commissioned by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services.

It recommended Americans use more generic medicines, which often are
cheaper in the United States than elsewhere.

The Bush administration is opposed to drug imports.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Health and Human Services
Secretary Tommy Thompson and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans said
Tuesday they will recommend that President George W. Bush veto any drug
import bill "that does not address the serious safety concerns."

They recommended Bush approve only a bill that, among other things,
tracks the manufacture, storage and shipment of drugs; involves only
foreign countries with regulatory systems on par with U.S. standards,
and imposes no price controls.

The Food and Drug Administration allows individuals to import
prescription medications for personal use, although it's technically
illegal. No such exception is made, however, for prescription drugs
imported for retail sale.

Some states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, and local governments
have established or sought to establish drug-import programs, mainly
from Canada.

Peter Rost, a vice president of marketing at Pfizer Inc. and the first
drug-industry executive to publicly say drug shipments from abroad can
be safe, rejected the administration's arguments about minimal cost
savings.

"If importation didn't work, you wouldn't have had it in Europe for 20
years. This is so wrong," Rost said of the report.

The panel's conclusion that there would be just a 1-percent savings
presumes imports would have to be handled by large-scale commercial
wholesalers to assure the integrity of drugs. Assuring safety would
cost about $3 billion a year.

Consumers using Canadian Web sites say they save up to 50 percent on
some medicines.

But the task force said many ostensibly Canadian drugs sold over the
Internet originate in loosely regulated Third World countries.

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Even Rost from Pfizer says that Bush's 'task force' is dead wrong.

TC