Illinois to Help Residents Buy Drugs From Canada, and Afar

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/national/17drugs.html?th

 

August 17, 2004

 

Illinois to Help Residents Buy Drugs From Canada, and

Afar

By MONICA DAVEY

 

CHICAGO, Aug. 16 - Opening a new front in the fight

over the cost of prescription drugs, Gov. Rod R.

Blagojevich of Illinois is preparing to help residents

of his state buy cheaper medicines from Britain and

Ireland, as well as Canada.

 

Aides to Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, said he would

announce on Tuesday that Illinois would create a

program, accessible on the Internet, so people could

buy 100 of the most common drugs for 25 percent to 50

percent less than in most American drugstores.

 

Federal authorities say it is illegal to buy drugs

from outside the United States, but since early this

year, officials in at least four other states -

Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Wisconsin -

have set up Web sites that link residents to Canadian

pharmacies. Expanding the market to Britain and

Ireland, Mr. Blagojevich's aides said, will spread

demand beyond Canada, where some suppliers have

reported shortages of certain drugs.

 

" The drug companies have pretty aggressively been

shutting supplies to Canada, and we want to ensure

that the supply will meet the demand, " Abby Ottenhoff,

a spokeswoman for Mr. Blagojevich, said. " Ultimately,

they can't shut down supplies to the world to keep

prices high in the United States. "

 

William K. Hubbard, an associate commissioner for the

Food and Drug Administration, said Mr. Blagojevich's

plan " sounds like yet another expansion of an effort

to import unapproved drugs from foreign countries that

will be illegal under U.S. law and will raise serious

concerns on the part of the F.D.A. "

 

The notion that Illinois was reaching even beyond

Canada, Mr. Hubbard said, made matters worse. " The

more they go into other countries, the more concerns

we have, " he said.

 

Illinois' move is the latest in what has become a

political and economic standoff over how Americans buy

their drugs: the F.D.A. and drug companies contend

that medications from other countries may be

counterfeit, mislabeled or otherwise unsafe, while a

growing number of local and state officials argue that

their residents must be allowed to buy the least

expensive drugs.

 

Illinois plans to contract with a Canadian company to

create a clearinghouse of more than 35 approved

pharmacies and wholesalers in Canada, Ireland and

Britain. The state hopes to first reach the estimated

2.8 million Illinois residents who have no

prescription drug coverage. If only 100,000 of them

bought drugs through the clearinghouse, they would

save as much as $29 million a year, Ms. Ottenhoff

said.

 

Wanda Moebius, a spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical

Research and Manufacturers of America, which

represents drug makers, said Illinois would not be

able to guarantee that drugs said to be from Britain

or Ireland really came from there. " We have serious

safety concerns, " Ms. Moebius said.

 

The Illinois program is designed for state residents

only. Customers will have to provide billing and

shipping addresses in the state.

 

Minnesota, the first state to start a Web site, in

late January, had 117,000 visitors to its site by the

end of July. Other states are using different methods

to press for change. Vermont authorities have

announced that they plan to sue the F.D.A. for

rejecting their plan to bring Canadian drugs to their

residents.

 

" On this issue, you can see the waves lapping up at

the fortress, " said Gary C. Hufbauer, a senior fellow

at the Institute for International Economics. " The

question is, What will they do about these waves? "

 

The F.D.A. considers it illegal to buy drugs, or cause

the sale of drugs, from other countries, but so far

the agency has not taken legal action against states

with Web sites that help people get drugs from abroad.

 

Mr. Hubbard said he could not say whether the agency

might take legal action against Illinois because he

had not seen details of its plan.

 

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