We’re Not Your Drugstore

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.

The New York Sun

Every day millions of uninsured or senior Americans cannot afford the brand name prescription drugs they need to manage their cholesterol, high blood pressure, or arthritis. So, over the last couple of years, many American politicians have proposed what they view as an ideal solution —”We’ll just buy our drugs from Canada, where they are much cheaper because the government controls the price.” The Canadian Pharmacists Association, which I represent, views this plan as less than ideal.

Two bills are before Congress that would, for the first time, legalize bulk imports of drugs from Canada. In an interview on PBS’s “News Hour with Jim Lehrer” in November, Senator Dorgan, who is the sponsor of one of the bills and chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee, said this would be a priority of the Democratic-led Congress.

Buying up cheaper Canadian drugs is not going to solve the systemic woes of the American health care system, although it may save state governments and individuals some money. Moreover, has anyone thought to ask if Canada wants to — or even could — act as America’s “drugstore”?

There seems to be some fairytale that a drug supply meant for 32 million Canadians can meet the needs of a market 10 times that size and that from the goodness of their hearts, pharmaceutical manufacturers will provide an infinite supply of drugs to Canada at controlled prices that are resold to America. To the contrary, a University of Texas researcher, Marv Shepherd, concluded in a 2004 study that meeting the full American demand would wipe out Canada’s supply of prescription drugs in just 38 days.

Until now, it has generally been individual Americans who, to save a few dollars, purchased prescription drugs from Canada, in person or via Internet pharmacies, itself a dubious practice. Why dubious? Under American law, importing prescription drugs has been illegal. Earlier this fall, however, U.S. Customs announced that as of October 9, 2006, it would no longer seize prescription drugs coming from Canada by mail, and a Homeland Security spending measure was enacted, which allows Americans to bring home from Canada up to 90-day supplies of prescription drugs for personal use.

It is also illegal for a Canadian pharmacist to fill a prescription that has not been countersigned by a Canadian doctor, who — in order not to break his or her code of ethics — should see the patient in person. This, however, is rarely the case when Americans buy drugs on the Internet.

Furthermore, a Canadian flag on an Internet Web site is no guarantee of the quality or origin of the drugs purchased. A sting operation conducted by the Food and Drug Administration in December 2005 found that 85% of prescription drugs seized were marked as Canadian in origin but were actually sent from 27 different countries, many of which continue to have a significant problem with counterfeit drugs. In addition to having been falsely promoted as Canadian, many of these drugs were not adequately labeled in English to ensure safe use.

U.S. Customs’ statistics on mail-order seizures show that at least 10% of packages from purportedly Canadian Internet pharmacies contain counterfeit drugs. In a major seizure made in August, $19 million worth of prescriptions that American patients believed were filled by a Canadian Internet pharmacy were actually counterfeit drugs supplied by organized crime in Central America.

Americans are endangering their health by buying potentially counterfeit drugs online and by bypassing physician and pharmacist care. Most often it is the vulnerable — the elderly or those with multiple prescriptions — who take this route.

As for us Canadians, what would “open season” on our drug supply mean? It would mean there wouldn’t be enough drugs available to meet our demand. Canadians would face shortages of vital drugs along with higher prices. Fewer new drugs would be released in Canada, and research and development in our country would shrink.

Canada simply does not have the capacity or the desire to meet America’s need for lower-cost drugs. We have to take care of our own health care needs, not provide solutions for the shortcomings of America’s health care system. If Medicare Part D wasn’t able to do the trick, try again. Canada isn’t your medicine cabinet.

Ms.Crandall is the public affairs manager of the Canadian Pharmacists Association.


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