Another item from our neighbors to the north...

According to the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, an organization which represents Internet and mail-order drugstores, the volume of sales of prescription drugs to American consumers has plummeted fifty percent in the last three years. In 2004, the CIPA says fifty-five online pharmacies purveyed a billion dollars worth of product to end users in the United States. Today, about thirty such online dispensaries fill only $500 million dollars in orders.

A high percentage of city and state sanctioned drug import programs started a couple of years ago to offer lower priced Canadian sourced pills to US patients have folded altogether from lack of use. In many of those cases, the costs of establishing and running the programs exceeded the actual savings they realized.

CIPA acknowledges that the rising value of the Canadian dollar and better prescription drug coverage by health insurance providers in the US have eroded the once significant price difference believed to exist.

Recently, the US Senate voted to legalize the importation of drugs from other countries. However, one clause in the legislation required the Food and Drug Administration to approve the medications and certify them as safe before they would be legalized. That isn't happening.

Today, US Customs blocks shipments of drugs, but more or less ignores an individual who travels across the border to purchase them in person or over the Internet.

It's always baffled me why a couple of things never seem to get mentioned about this:

1) The price of BRAND NAME prescription drugs was less. GENERIC drugs actually cost more in Canada and other places than they do here. The Canadian government carefully controls what comes across its borders, and not just anyone can walk in and set up shop there, just like anywhere else in the world. Canada insisted upon buying the drugs from the manufacturers and then reselling them to its citizens, not unlike what my home state of Iowa does with liquor, extracting the taxes from the markup in the process. The government of Canada represents one huge customer, instead of the Canadian people representing many small customers. They get a good quantity discount for purchasing in huge volume. Why? Easy - any company that wants to make sales to the considerable market that Canada is has to accept the price the Canadian government offers, or no deal. No one has to do business there, after all. And they don't do business there if the government doesn't permit them to. In this case, that government is the only customer as far as the manufacturers are concerned. There's no going around them to reach pharmacies within the country. A small profit is made, and the compensation comes from raising the free market prices which the US consumer pays. Remember, we're talking the latest and greatest medicinal potions here. Lipitor, Viagra, and other things all those obnoxious ads urge you to ask your doctor about. Once the patent expires and it's open for all, the value drops significantly. Competition kills the lucrative profit margins, and if the costs haven't been recouped by that point, they probably never will be.

2) The FDA is responsible for enforcing regulations and ensuring the supply of food and drugs is safe. If a manufacturer gets caught violating safety rules, the FDA comes after them. If bad product hits the market and causes harm to people, a recall could be forced, or, ultimately, the factory could be shut down altogether, putting the maker out of business and ensuring no one else will be harmed. What can the FDA do about drugs made elsewhere? It can't inspect production facilities in other countries, especially if they're not completely willing to cooperate. It would have to be voluntary, as it couldn't be forced by law, except through some type of agreement or treaty between governments, which is a long shot. The FDA also has about as much ability to stop foreign producers of bad pharmaceuticals as the FBI and Secret Service have of arresting computer hackers in Russia or China who steal credit card and bank account numbers.

It just isn't realistic to expect a US government agency to certify or approve something they have no real control or authority over. Consider this: if you or one of your friends or relatives took some pills that turned out to be either defective or even counterfeit and the result was debilitating illness or death, there wouldn't be a thing that could be done about it and those at fault would get away with it because no one here would be able to prosecute or sanction them.

Things may not be exactly as we like them here, but we need to be thankful for what we do have sometimes!

The TiGor