Progress Report: If They're Safe, They're Coming

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Wed, 22 Dec 2004 09:02:24 -0800

Progress Report: " If They're Safe, They're Coming "

 

 

 

" American Progress Action Fund "

<progress

 

The Progress Report

 

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

 

December 22, 2004

 

HEALTH CARE " If They're Safe, They're Coming "

HUMAN RIGHTS Obstructing Justice

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

HEALTH CARE

" If They're Safe, They're Coming "

 

Christmas came early this year for the pharmaceutical industry. A Bush

administration task force took the drug industry's talking points

opposing drug re-importation and gift wrapped them in a 130-page

report released yesterday. Instead of making substantive

recommendations about how to provide Americans access to cheaper

prescription drugs, the report exaggerates the costs and complexity of

importation. (Predictably, the drug industry's lobbying group said the

report " substantiates " its own weak claims and quickly repackaged the

report's conclusions into a press release). Buried in the report was

an important concession: commercial imports from Canada are safe. In

October, Bush promised the American people that he was awaiting the

conclusions of the task force to make a decision on importing drugs

from Canada, saying, " If they're safe, they're coming. " But in a

letter to Congressional leaders yesterday, Health and Human Services

(HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans

said that if Congress were to pass a drug reimportation bill that

didn't meet a detailed set of requirements designed to protect the

pharmaceutical industry, the president would likely veto the bill.

 

MONEY FOR SOMETHING: It is not surprising a report sponsored by the

Bush administration would come to a conclusion which is favorable for

drug companies. According to Public Citizen, thirteen pharmaceutical

company executives and their lobbyists in Washington " together raised

at least $2.2 million for Bush's two presidential campaigns. " Since

2000, the pharmaceutical industry has shelled out more than $70

million in campaign contributions, with 70 percent going to

Republicans. In addition, a total of fourteen senior Bush

administration officials have " passed through the federal government's

revolving door and are now lobbying for the prescription drug industry. "

 

REAL PROBLEM IS EXCESSIVE PROFITS: The task force claims that, if

re-importation were legal, the drug industry would have to reduce

spending on research and development by $1.1 billion each year,

resulting in " between four to eighteen fewer new drugs being

introduced per decade. " (This is based on the assumption that it costs

about $1.3 billion to bring a new drug to market). Here is what the

task force doesn't tell you: In 2002, Fortune 500 drug companies

pocketed $35.9 billion in profits. Astoundingly, " the combined profits

for the ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9 billion) were

more than the profits for all the other 490 businesses put together

($33.7 billion). " In other words, by the task force's logic, the

excessive profits raked in by major drug companies deprive consumers

of 275 new drugs per decade. If the drug industry decided to pare back

its profits by just three percent, Americans could have access to

cheaper drugs with no impact on drug innovation.

 

THE LOST PROFIT MYTH: Any impact on drug research and development is

premised on the task force's conclusion that drug imports would

" reduce overall U.S. pharmaceutical industry revenues. " But an April

study by Boston University School of Public Health Directors Alan

Sager and Deborah Socolar argued that, because importing medications

from Canada would allow substantial numbers of Americans to obtain

prescription drugs they cannot afford today, " the financial harm to

drug makers may be surprisingly low. Drug makers could even benefit. "

The study found that if prescriptions that would otherwise go unfilled

accounted for more than 45 percent of the imports from Canada, drug

makers' profits would actually increase. The profit lost by drug

makers when patients filled their existing prescriptions at lower

Canadian prices would be offset by the added profit drug makers would

see from selling additional prescriptions through Canada.

 

KEY FINDING: IMPORTATION FROM CANADA IS SAFE: In " key finding " # 2,

the report's authors admit, " some means of drug importation (e.g.,

traveling to Canada for certain brand name drugs available in both

countries) may be relatively safe. " Of course, this is exactly the

notion the Bush administration has argued against. Missing the point,

the administration report goes on to warn about the dangers of " bogus

internet operations " and " rogue websites, " which " provide customers

with inferior products. " But such methods of " personal importation "

would not be necessary if the government simply agreed to import drugs

in the first place.

 

THE FDA 'GOLD STANDARD' MYTH: The administration report warns Congress

to make sure imported drugs " adhere to the 'gold standard' of safety

and efficacy that is expected from FDA-approved drugs. " That might be

shooting a little low: In just the last month, FDA approved products

Vioxx, Celebrex, Bextra, Aleve, Naprosyn and Nevirapine have been

shown to pose serious unacknowledged health risks to consumers. " The

authors of this report don't cite a single example where an American

has been harmed by an imported drug, " said Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-MN),

" and we have thousands of examples now where Americans were harmed by

FDA-approved drugs. "

 

REPORT DOWNPLAYS SAVINGS: The report downplays the potential savings

from legalized drug importation, saying most of the price difference

would be captured by " intermediaries. " But the CBO's analysis of a

bill considered by Congress in 2003 found legalized importation would

" reduce total prescription drug expenditures in the United States by

about…$40 billion " over the next nine years. " The act would also

" reduce spending on health benefits for firms that provide health

insurance, " increasing tax and Social Security revenues.

 

ADMINISTRATION INSTEAD CALLS FOR RESTRICTIONS ON PATIENTS' RIGHTS: In

its letter to Congress, the administration task force makes one

recommendation for addressing health care costs: reining in " excessive

litigation. " But, according to the Congressional Budget Office, even

major restrictions on malpractice payouts would have " only a small

direct impact on health care spending, " since " malpractice costs

account for less than 2 percent of that spending. " Meanwhile,

aggressive restrictions on patients' rights might prevent consumers

from holding drug makers responsible when they, say, bury studies and

data revealing serious safety risks associated with their drugs.

 

REPORT PROMPTS BI-PARTISAN CRITICISM: The bipartisan co-sponsors of

the legislation which authorized the study were frustrated with the

task force's report. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said he " never had much

confidence that this study was going to be objective or its

conclusions accurate. " Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) called the report " a

disappointment to those of us who have fought long and hard to develop

safe and effective prescription drug importation legislation. " (Other

GOP supporters of importing drugs are Sen. John McCain (AZ), Sen.

Trent Lott (MS), Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN) and Rep. Jo Anne Emerson (MO)).

 

HUMAN RIGHTS

Obstructing Justice

 

A wave of new documents suggest " the abuse of foreign detainees in

U.S. military custody was more widespread, varied and grave in the

past three years than the Defense Department has long maintained. " The

new documents reveal " the misconduct included shocking detainees with

electric guns, shackling them without food and water, and wrapping a

detainee in an Israeli flag. " Amrit Singh, a lawyer for the ACLU,

said, " the documents show so far that the abuse was widespread and

systemic, that it was the result of decisions taken by high-ranking

officials, and that the abuse took place within a culture of secrecy

and neglect. " White House Spokesman Scott McClellan said, " President

Bush expects a full investigation and corrective actions 'to make sure

that abuse does not occur again.' " But Slate points out that while the

White House now promises an investigation of the latest disclosures,

" there has been no independent or overarching investigation of the

abuses, and the administration has opposed the creation of one. "

(American Progress has been calling for an independent investigation

since May.)

 

 

Under the Radar

 

HEALTH CARE – WHEN PUBLIC SERVANTS GO BAD: Researchers who set the

nation's medical standards have been accepting fees and stock from the

powerful pharmaceutical industry. Take, for example, Dr. H. Bryan

Brewer. Brewer led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) team which

set the country's new cholesterol guidelines, prompting millions of

Americans to take cholesterol-lowering medication. He went so far as

to favorably recommend one specific medication to help people meet the

new standards: Crestor. The drug industry circulated the new

guidelines in their marketing materials to drum up customers. What

Brewer didn't include in his report: He worked for the company that

sold the drug. From 2001 to 2003, he made about $114,000 in

" consulting fees " from companies making cholesterol medication,

" including $31,000 from the maker of Crestor. " Unfortunately, Dr.

Brewer isn't alone. According to the Los Angeles Times, " At least 530

government scientists at the NIH, the nation's preeminent agency for

medical research, have taken fees, stock or stock options from

biomedical companies in the last five years. "

 

ECONOMY – NEW YEAR BRINGS WAGE BOOSTS: Though the federal government

hasn't raised the minimum wage since 1997, workers in at least five

states will ring in the New Year with a pay hike, as new minimum wage

laws take effect on January 1. The calendar's turn will bring wage

increases " in Illinois (from $5.50 to $6.50 per hour), New York ($5.15

to $6.00), Oregon ($7.05 to $7.25), Vermont ($6.75 to $7.00) and

Washington ($7.15 to $7.35), " Stateline reports. " New York will be the

latest addition to a group of 12 states where minimum wages surpass

the federal level of $5.15. "

 

HOLIDAYS - NICE THINGS DONE BY GOOD PEOPLE: Christmas came a little

early this year for residents of Anthon, Iowa, thanks to Richard

Hamann and his wife, Donna. The couple gave a gift to the entire town,

doling out " $25,000 to pay the town's electricity bills — all due on

Dec. 25. " Said Hamann, " The Lord has been very good to us and so have

the people of this community, so I always thought we ought to be doing

something in return if we could. "

 

GLOBAL AID – WORLD HUNGER PANGS GETTING SHARPER: Even as " the number

of hungry in the world is rising for the first time in years and all

food programs are being stretched, " the Bush administration has over

the past two months reduced its contributions to global food aid

programs by as much as $100 million dollars. The severe cutbacks have

forced development groups to suspend or eliminate " programs that were

intended to help the poor feed themselves through improvements in

farming, education and health. " Several observers, including one

unnamed administration official, " voiced concern that putting such a

high priority on emergency help might be short-sighted, " noting the

" best way to avoid future famines is to help poor countries become

self-sufficient with cash and food aid now. "

 

FOREIGN POLICY – RUSSIA NOW AT 'NOT FREE' STATUS: Noting a " dangerous

and disturbing drift toward authoritarianism in Russia, " Freedom

House, a U.S.-based organization that tracks the progress of political

rights and civil liberties across the world, has shifted Russia from

" partly free " status to " not free. " And while President Bush " used the

word 'democracy' repeatedly to express his aspirations for Iraq and

the Palestinians " during his press conference on Monday, he downplayed

Russian President Putin's elimination of provincial and local

elections as merely an issue of " balance of power. " President Bush

also claimed that " Putin and I have got a good personal

relationship...where if we disagree with decisions, we can do so in a

friendly and positive way. " Three weeks ago, however, " Putin launched

a blistering attack on the United States, accusing it of running a

'dictatorship' over global affairs and able only to worsen humanity's

problems. "

 

VALUES – RIGHT-WING ELITISTS: In Tuesday's Washington Post, Terry Neal

examines America's true media elite – " corporate leaders at companies

as diverse as News Corp., Marriott International and Time Warner [who]

profit by selling red state consumers the very material that red state

culture is supposed to despise, " then funnel the proceeds to

conservative causes. " The people who run the Republican Party are

elites just like any other elite, and they don't share the same

cultural concerns as the center of the country, " admits conservative

CNN host Tucker Carlson. " [T]hey don't have anything in common…with

evangelicals who make up the bulk of their party. " In the most recent

issue of Cigar Aficionado, for example, Rush Limbaugh takes a pause

from smearing " liberal elitists " to describe his love for the fruits

of Cuba, gushing over his trip to a high-end tobacco salon in London

where he smoked Cuban cigars and waxed about their similarity to

Bordeaux grapes.