Once more into the abyss.
Senator Byron Dorgan (D, ND) has proposed an amendment to the Senate’s healthcare reform bill that would allow drug importation from a gaggle of foreign nations.
It’s worth restating the facts.
State and local importation schemes have been dismal and politically embarrassing. Remember Illinois’ high profile “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. (And the brainchild of this scheme -- for those who may have forgotten -- was Wrong-Way Rod Blagojevich.)
And what of Minnesota’s RxConnect? According to its latest statistics, Minnesota RxConnect fills about 138 prescriptions a month. That's for the whole state. Minnesota population: 5,167,101.
And what about Springfield, MA and “the New Boston Tea Party?” Well the city of Springfield has been out of “drugs from Canada business” since August 2006. (But that hasn’t stopped Chris Collins – a representative of CanaRX from telling some New York municipalities that, “We’re now saving over $2 million a year in Springfield, MA.”
This is particularly appalling since the drugs being sent to U.S. customers from CanaRX are most certainly not “the same drugs Canadians get.” That bit of rhetoric is just plain wrong. CanaRX – by their own admission – sources their drugs from the European Union.
PS/ The drugs CanaRX sells to Americans aren’t even legal for sale in Canada.
Shameful.
And speaking of Boston, Beantown’s offer of low-cost Canadian prescription drugs to city employees and retirees has, according to the Boston Globe, “ fizzled, never having attracted more than a few dozen participants.”
In late July of 2008, the Canadian supplier for the Boston program, Winnipeg-based Total Care Pharmacy, sent a letter to city officials saying the firm was terminating its agreement because there were so few participants. In 2006, Boston saved $4,300 on a total of 73 prescriptions. When Total Care decided to end its relationship with the city, only 16 Boston retirees were still participating.
Surprising? Not really. A study by the non-partisan federal Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study showed that importation would reduce our nation’s spending on prescription medicines a whopping 0.1% -- and that’s not including the millions of dollars the FDA would need to set up a monitoring system.
Healthcare reform is already in deep enough fiscal trouble. Senator Dorgan shouldn’t make it any worse by looking for unsafe, unsound, quick-fix solutions that don’t save money and compromise safety make -- good soundbites notwithstanding.
Illusory savings aide, the real issue is safety.
All of the large Canadian internet pharmacies openly admit that the drugs they send to unsuspecting Americans are not “the same” drugs that Canadians get at their local pharmacy. They’re from other places — many from Europe. So what’s wrong with that? Two words — parallel trade — the term Europeans use for drug importation. Senator Dorgan may hide behind words like “from Canada” — but that’s not the reality because EU law makes it far more complicated and dangerous. According to the Treaty of Rome, parallel trade is completely legal and Articles 30 and 36 prohibit manufacturers from managing their European supply chains in their own or patients’ interests.
Sorry Senator, the truth is inconvenient.
Last year 140 million individual drug packages were parallel imported throughout the European Union — and a secondary wholesaler repackaged each and every one. (The same type of secondary wholesaler that we are trying to eliminate in the US because of their role as “weak link in the chain” — the chain of custody that is.)
This means that, literally, parallel traders in Europe open 140 million packets of drugs, remove their contents and repackage them. But these parallel profiteers are in the moneymaking business, not the safety business. And mistakes happen. For example, new labels incorrectly state the dosage strength; the new label says the box contains tablets, but inside are capsules; the expiration date and batch numbers on the medicine boxes don’t match the actual batch and dates of expiration of the medicines inside; and patient information materials are often in the wrong language or are out of date. Oops.
This means that drugs purchased from a British pharmacy to an unknowing American consumer (or a United States Senator) could come from European Union nations such as Greece, Latvia, Poland, Malta, Cyprus, or Estonia. In fact, parallel traded medicines account for about 20% (one in five) of all prescriptions filled by British pharmacies. In the EU there is no requirement to record the batch numbers of parallel imported medicines, so if a batch of medicines originally intended for sale in Greece is recalled, tracing where the entire batch has gone (for example, from Athens to London through Canada to Indianapolis) is impossible. Caveat Emptor is bad health care practice and even worse health care policy. Safety cannot be compromised, even if the truth is inconvenient.
Stubborn facts.
The Dorgan Amendment? Just say no.
Senator Byron Dorgan (D, ND) has proposed an amendment to the Senate’s healthcare reform bill that would allow drug importation from a gaggle of foreign nations.
It’s worth restating the facts.
State and local importation schemes have been dismal and politically embarrassing. Remember Illinois’ high profile “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. (And the brainchild of this scheme -- for those who may have forgotten -- was Wrong-Way Rod Blagojevich.)
And what of Minnesota’s RxConnect? According to its latest statistics, Minnesota RxConnect fills about 138 prescriptions a month. That's for the whole state. Minnesota population: 5,167,101.
And what about Springfield, MA and “the New Boston Tea Party?” Well the city of Springfield has been out of “drugs from Canada business” since August 2006. (But that hasn’t stopped Chris Collins – a representative of CanaRX from telling some New York municipalities that, “We’re now saving over $2 million a year in Springfield, MA.”
This is particularly appalling since the drugs being sent to U.S. customers from CanaRX are most certainly not “the same drugs Canadians get.” That bit of rhetoric is just plain wrong. CanaRX – by their own admission – sources their drugs from the European Union.
PS/ The drugs CanaRX sells to Americans aren’t even legal for sale in Canada.
Shameful.
And speaking of Boston, Beantown’s offer of low-cost Canadian prescription drugs to city employees and retirees has, according to the Boston Globe, “ fizzled, never having attracted more than a few dozen participants.”
In late July of 2008, the Canadian supplier for the Boston program, Winnipeg-based Total Care Pharmacy, sent a letter to city officials saying the firm was terminating its agreement because there were so few participants. In 2006, Boston saved $4,300 on a total of 73 prescriptions. When Total Care decided to end its relationship with the city, only 16 Boston retirees were still participating.
Surprising? Not really. A study by the non-partisan federal Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study showed that importation would reduce our nation’s spending on prescription medicines a whopping 0.1% -- and that’s not including the millions of dollars the FDA would need to set up a monitoring system.
Healthcare reform is already in deep enough fiscal trouble. Senator Dorgan shouldn’t make it any worse by looking for unsafe, unsound, quick-fix solutions that don’t save money and compromise safety make -- good soundbites notwithstanding.
Illusory savings aide, the real issue is safety.
All of the large Canadian internet pharmacies openly admit that the drugs they send to unsuspecting Americans are not “the same” drugs that Canadians get at their local pharmacy. They’re from other places — many from Europe. So what’s wrong with that? Two words — parallel trade — the term Europeans use for drug importation. Senator Dorgan may hide behind words like “from Canada” — but that’s not the reality because EU law makes it far more complicated and dangerous. According to the Treaty of Rome, parallel trade is completely legal and Articles 30 and 36 prohibit manufacturers from managing their European supply chains in their own or patients’ interests.
Sorry Senator, the truth is inconvenient.
Last year 140 million individual drug packages were parallel imported throughout the European Union — and a secondary wholesaler repackaged each and every one. (The same type of secondary wholesaler that we are trying to eliminate in the US because of their role as “weak link in the chain” — the chain of custody that is.)
This means that, literally, parallel traders in Europe open 140 million packets of drugs, remove their contents and repackage them. But these parallel profiteers are in the moneymaking business, not the safety business. And mistakes happen. For example, new labels incorrectly state the dosage strength; the new label says the box contains tablets, but inside are capsules; the expiration date and batch numbers on the medicine boxes don’t match the actual batch and dates of expiration of the medicines inside; and patient information materials are often in the wrong language or are out of date. Oops.
This means that drugs purchased from a British pharmacy to an unknowing American consumer (or a United States Senator) could come from European Union nations such as Greece, Latvia, Poland, Malta, Cyprus, or Estonia. In fact, parallel traded medicines account for about 20% (one in five) of all prescriptions filled by British pharmacies. In the EU there is no requirement to record the batch numbers of parallel imported medicines, so if a batch of medicines originally intended for sale in Greece is recalled, tracing where the entire batch has gone (for example, from Athens to London through Canada to Indianapolis) is impossible. Caveat Emptor is bad health care practice and even worse health care policy. Safety cannot be compromised, even if the truth is inconvenient.
Stubborn facts.
The Dorgan Amendment? Just say no.
