[Pharm-policy] Uncertainty Casts a Shadow over US parallel imports bill

[James Love]

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/11/politics/11DRUG.html                                                        

         Uncertainty Casts a Shadow on Support for a Measure
         That Allows Imports of Drugs

         By ROBERT PEAR

               WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 - Doubts are
               growing about legislation to allow
               imports of low-priced prescription
         drugs, and no one in the government or the drug
         industry can say how it will work, or even 
         whether it will work.

House and Senate negotiators approved the measure on drug imports last
week. But Chris Jennings, the health policy coordinator at the White
House, said today, "As currently structured, this provision is
unworkable and would not achieve its goal."

A lobbyist for one of the nation's biggest drug companies, which have
worked against the measure, said, "I doubt that anyone will realize a
penny of savings from this legislation."

  [snip]

Even some original supporters of drug-import legislation, like Senator
Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota and Representative Marion Berry of
Arkansas, both Democrats, said they were disappointed with the
compromise. "I don't think consumers will get much benefit," Mr. Berry,
a pharmacist, said in an interview.

  [snip]

Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said: "The bill
is full of loopholes. It tells U.S. pharmacists that they can import
cheaper foreign drugs, but then denies them access to the F.D.A.-
approved labels that must be on the drugs. The bottom line is that very
few, if any drugs, can be imported into the United States under this
legislation."

  [snip]

The bill says the changes in drug- import rules will take effect only if
the secretary of health and human services can show that they pose no
new risk to public health and safety.

Still, two senior members of the House, Thomas J. Bliley Jr., Republican
of Virginia, and John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, said the
legislation increased the likelihood that counterfeit or adulterated
drugs would enter the United States.

The National Wholesale Druggists' Association, which represents large
wholesale distributors, opposed the legislation, citing concerns about
safety.

But John M. Rector, senior vice president of the National Community
Pharmacists Association, which represents 35,000 independent pharmacies,
said some of his members were interested in importing prescription drugs
for customers. The pharmacists, he said, will work through their buying
groups or purchasing cooperatives.





James Love  mailto:love@cptech.org http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
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