Senate Kills Bid To Allow Buying Of Medicines From Abroad
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
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.
