More on the prescription drug saga

January 6th, 2004 by Julie Ferguson

The story continues to unfold as the FDA says “nix” to states and cities seeking to import prescription drugs from Canada to get relief from onerous pricing here in the U.S. No states are actually importing drugs yet, but many say they will fight the FDA ruling. The cities of Springfield, MA and Montgomery, AL are both currently running programs to purchase drugs, and saving quite a bit of money by doing so.
The ruling was a response to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s request for a waiver to allow the state to purchase drugs from Canada for state workers and retirees. He estimates that the state could realize a savings on the order of $91 million a year.

The FDA frames this as a consumer safety issue saying that “imported drugs could be tainted, old or fake,” but to many these protestations seem disingenuous. The pharmaceutical industry no doubt fears that this could open the door to drug pricing controls here in the U.S., and it would seem likely that the administration is going to want to keep the deep pockets in this industry happy pre-election.

See our prior discussion of this issue and a study pointing to the alarmingly high prescription drug costs in workers’ comp.

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