Senate Kills Bid To Allow Buying Of Medicines From Abroad

WASHINGTON — The Senate effectively killed a bid to allow consumers to buy their prescription medicines abroad yesterday, requiring American officials to certify the safety and effectiveness of such drugs. The certification amendment, passed on a 49–40 vote, would require health officials to do something they have long said they cannot.

Because of that, the vote undercut a second measure that would permit prescription drug imports from Food and Drug Administration-approved sources in Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand.

The Bush administration opposes allowing imports of prescription drugs, and the White House had threatened a veto.

Senator Sanders, an independent of Vermont, called the certification amendment, introduced by Senator Cochran, a Republican of Mississippi, a "poison pill" for the drug-imports legislation. Senator Dorgan, a Democrat of North Dakota, acknowledged it voided his bid to allow the purchase of drugs abroad. Overseas, drugs can cost two-thirds less than they do in America, where prices for brand-name drugs are among the highest in the world.

Similar drug-import legislation is pending in the House.