[Pharm-policy] Hillary Clinton endorses parallel imports of medicine for USA

[James Love]

Campaiging for the US Senate, first lady Hillary Clinton endorsed
parallel imports of pharmaceutical drugs to cut US health care costs.

Jamie


               The New York Times, February 9, 2000
               Mrs. Clinton Favors American Access to Cheaper
               Canadian Medicines

               By ADAM NAGOURNEY

                         OCHESTER, Feb. 8 -- Wading back into an area 
that brought her both national prominence and a high-profile defeat,
Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged today to push anew for universal health
care coverage, proposing legislation that would give consumers
unrestricted access to low-cost prescription drugs sold in Canada.

               "We have to keep moving," Mrs. Clinton declared to an
audience of doctors, nurses and researchers at Strong Memorial Hospital.
"I didn't give up then, and I won't give up now. I have always believed
health care is a fundamental human right."

               She added, "We can never give up until we figure out a
way to provide quality health insurance to everyone in our country."

               With that declaration, Mrs. Clinton began setting out the
ways she would try to make health care coverage a central issue in her
campaign for the United States Senate.

               In contrast to 1994, when Mrs. Clinton and the president
pushed a wide-ranging universal health care coverage that collapsed in
the face of opposition in Congress, Mrs. Clinton argued today for
incremental steps, starting -- at least for the purposes of her campaign
-- with the prescription drug bill.

               Under the legislation, pharmacists in the United States
would be allowed to buy medicines from their counterparts in Canada,
where, because of cost controls imposed by the government, prices are
typically one-third lower.

               Although Mrs. Clinton did not mention it, similar
legislation has been introduced in Congress by Representative Bernie
Sanders, the independent from Vermont, but it has faced strong
opposition from pharmaceutical manufacturers.

               Mrs. Clinton said that the drugs, both those shipped to
Canada and those sold in the United
States, were typically made with the same ingredients, in the same
factories and under the same controls.

               "The only difference is that Americans are paying more in
retail costs than the rest of the world," she said.

               "I was told that New Yorkers never bought retail. Well,
that's wrong when it comes to drugs."

               The restriction on reimporting drugs was contained in
legislation passed by Congress in 1988.

               That measure was an effort not to control the cost of
prescription drugs, but to assure their safety. The concern was that the
Food and Drug Administration could not monitor the potency or the
quality of drugs that were imported into  the United States, even if
they had been manufactured here.

               Jackie Cottrell, a spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical 
Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade association, denounced
Mrs. Clinton's  announcement as "an election year proposal."

               "Mrs. Clinton's proposal would overturn landmark 
consumer protection legislation by a partisan Congress, led by her own
party, passed 10  years ago to protect consumers from unsafe,
potentially adulterated medicine," she said.


     [snip]


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James Love, Director           | http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology | mailto:love@cptech.org 
P.O. Box 19367                 | voice: 1.202.387.8030
Washington, DC 20036           | fax:   1.202.234.5176
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