WASHINGTON – President Bush dangled his support for legalizing prescription drug imports before voters during this year’s campaign, but his administration declared Tuesday it’s too costly to do safely.
Regulating the purchase of prescription medicines from abroad would wipe away most savings and diminish investment in new drugs, according to the Health and Human Services Task Force on Drug Importation, led by Surgeon General Richard Carmona.
Consumers would be better off increasing their use of generic medicines, which often are cheaper in the United States than elsewhere, the report said.
Coincident with release of the report, the Commerce Department released “Pharmaceutical Price Controls in OECD Countries.” That concluded that while prescription drugs are indeed considerably cheaper in other countries – in large part because of government-imposed price controls – those reductions result in less innovation abroad.
The reports do not close the door on easier importation, but they make plain that Canada is the only country in a position to serve as foreign supplier of reliable prescription drugs. And considering the expense of setting up even a limited system with that country – and the harm that it may cause to U.S. drug companies – consumers would ultimately benefit very little, the reports conclude.
Proponents of drug imports, including some Republican lawmakers, said the HHS report’s conclusions were not surprising because many task force members have been staunchly opposed to importation. “It sounds like PhRMA could have written the report,” Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., said, referring to the drug industry trade group.
The HHS report severely limited the circumstances in which drug imports could be safe. Individual drug shipments through the mail and package services should not be made legal at all, the report said.
Commercial importation from Canada, using licensed wholesalers, could be considered, the report said. But the savings would be small because taxpayers would have to spend several hundred million dollars to increase substantially the regulation of drug manufacturers and distributors, the report said. Middlemen also would skim off most of the savings, it said.
Shipments of imports must require a drug pedigree to trace their path from manufacture to entry into the United States, the report said. The Food and Drug Administration, however, repeatedly has declined to put in place a requirement for drug pedigrees, instead relying on voluntary measures.
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