According to a report in the Helena Independent Record:
Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who last month asked the federal government to approve a “waiver” so Montana could import prescription drugs at lower cost for state-funded health plans, has not submitted any of the usual documentation that accompanies a waiver request, his administration acknowledges. Instead, the governor wrote only a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, asking that her agency grant Montana a “Medicaid waiver” allowing importation of lower-cost drugs from Canada.
“We have to work through the secretary’s office,” says Anna Whiting Sorrell, director of the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. “There is not another state that has requested this. We think the governor is forging a new path.”
News must travel slowly in Montana.
There have been numerous requests for such waivers. And they’ve all been denied – for good reason.
Let’s look at the record.
Minnesota
During pre-announced visits by Minnesota State officials, Canadian Internet pharmacies were observed engaging in dangerous practices. For example:
- One pharmacy had its pharmacists check 100 new prescriptions or 300 refill prescriptions per hour, a volume so high that here is no way to assure safety.
- One pharmacy failed to label its products and several others failed to send any patient drug information to patients receiving prescription drugs.
- Drugs requiring refrigeration were being shipped un-refrigerated with no evidence that the products would remain stable.
- One pharmacy had no policy in place for drug recalls. Representatives of the pharmacy allegedly said that the patient could contact the pharmacy about a recall “if they wished."
- One of the Canadian internet pharmacy presidents said, “We won’t have any problems getting drugs. We have creative ways to get them.”
- The FDA launched an investigation confiscating thousands of drug shipments headed for the U.S. Some of them were headed for Minnesotans who ordered them over the state’s Web site. When opened, nearly half claimed to be of Canadian origin, but “85 percent of them were from 27 other countries including Iran, Ecuador and China. And 30 of them were counterfeit. One Minnesota resident discovered that one of his “Canadian” drugs came from Greece, and another came from Vanuatu, a small island in the South Pacific. "I never heard of the place,” he said.
According to its latest statistics, Minnesota RxConnect fills about 138 prescriptions a month. That's for the whole state -- population: 5,167,101.
Wisconsin
Modeled on the Minnesota program, the Wisconsin site hawks its promise and hides its dangers. All of the legalese buries the fact that the state doesn’t except any responsibility for the safety or effectiveness of any medicines bought on the State’s website. For example, the State won’t even guarantee that the drugs ordered are what the customer will receive. Not only that, but the State also says that they will not accept any legal responsibility or liability should any of the drugs cause a problem. The Governor is hiding the fact that his website puts any user into a dangerous buyer beware situation. Here’s the exact verbiage from the Wisconsin site:
“In no event shall the State Portal or its employees be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this system, even if advised of the possibility of such damage. This disclaimer of liability applies to any damages or injury, including but not limited to those caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communication line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of record, whether for breach of contract, tortious behavior, negligence or under any other cause of action.”
Illinois
Remember Wrong-Way Rod Blagojevich’s swagger over his “I-Save-RX”program? Over 19 months of operation, a grand total of 3,689 Illinois residents used the program -- which equals approximately .02% of the population.
The City Experience
Remember Springfield, MA and “the New Boston Tea Party?” Well the city of Springfield has been out of “drugs from Canada business” since August 2006.
And speaking of Boston tea parties, according to a story in the Boston Globe, “Four years after Mayor Thomas M. Menino bucked federal regulators and made Boston the biggest city nationally to offer low-cost Canadian prescription drugs to employees and retirees, the program has fizzled, never having attracted more than a few dozen participants.”
And then, of course, there are those pesky safety issues.
Attention Governor Schweitzer -- The drugs being sent to U.S. customers from Canadian internet pharmacies are not “the same drugs Canadians get.” That bit of rhetoric is just plain wrong. Canadian internet pharmacies – by their own admission – are sourcing their drugs from the European Union. And while they may say their drugs come from the United Kingdom, let’s not conveniently forget that 20% of all the medicines sold in the UK are parallel imported from other nations in the EU – like Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Lithuania.
Last month Governor Schweitzer said that Montana could buy some of the drugs directly from wholesalers in Canada or place the orders and have them delivered to pharmacies around the state, for purchase by people covered by publicly funded health plans.
Someone should refer the Governor to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations:
“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”
And if that familiar quote from Santayana doesn’t get the point across, here’s a related one – “Remember the Alamo.”
The Montana state slogan is “the last best place.” Maybe so.
But not for drug importation.
