Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vermont, is co-sponsoring legislation that would allow Americans to “safely” import prescription drugs from Canada, where costs are a fraction of what they are in the United States, creating more competition in the pharmaceutical market.
“Skyrocketing drug prices are hammering patients in Vermont and across America,” Welch said in a statement. “Lifesaving drugs that help treat cancers, blood clots, asthma and multiple sclerosis aren’t helpful if Americans can’t afford them. Meanwhile, those same drugs are hundreds of dollars cheaper just a few miles north in Canada. Our bipartisan legislation will allow patients to import prescription drugs from Canada and help folks get the lifesaving medication they need.”
The bill would require prescription drugs to be purchased from an approved Canadian pharmacy, for personal use by the individual, not for resale, in quantities that do not exceed a 90-day supply. A valid prescription issued by a physician licensed to practice in the United States would be required and the drug would have to have the same active ingredient(s), dosage and strength as the drug sold in the United States.
Welch introduced the Safe and Affordable Drugs from Canada Act together with Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The act is also co-sponsored by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, Angus King, I-Maine, Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island.
Not so fast on buying our drugs, say the Canadians
This year’s legislation is the latest in a long-running effort to allow Americans to safely and legally buy drugs from Canada, led in the past by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont. Klobuchar and Grassley introduced similar legislation last year as well.
In June 2017, a paper written by Nigel Rawson, an independent researcher, and Louise Binder, a lawyer and health advocate, was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, opposing similar legislation that year to allow Americans to buy Canadian drugs.
“The bill was introduced because drug prices in the US are much higher than in other comparable countries, because there are no regulations for price controls,” Rawson and Binder wrote. “This has led to many Americans not being able to afford the prescription drugs that they need. For example, an analysis of data from a comparison of drug prices in Canada and New York in 2016 reported that 45 million Americans − about 18% of the adult population − did not fill a prescription because of cost.”
While acknowledging that access to lower-price drugs would “improve the well-being of Americans without health insurance” Rawson and Binder wrote the act was an “impractical way” to address the drug-pricing problem in the United States.
“First and foremost, drug manufacturers allot sales to a country by assessing the number of people who will take the drug each year based on past practice and a reasonable estimate of likely increases,” Rawson and Binder wrote. “Manufacturers are unlikely to increase manufacturing capacity in Canada or to allocate more drugs to Canada from other countries when they know that the drugs will be redistributed to another market, especially a much larger and more lucrative one.”
Rawson and Binder predicted that if legislation allowing Americans to buy Canadian drugs was implemented, it would result in increased drug shortages in Canada, and “cause substantial distress to Canadians.”
“Canada’s drug supply is not a long-term solution to America’s homegrown drug-pricing problem,” Rawson and Binder wrote. “Politicians in the US should directly address the issue of how to achieve affordable drug access and not disrupt another country’s health care system in an attempt to solve the problem.”
Elisabeth St. Onge, a spokesperson for Welch, said in an email that the senator “is working to address drug shortages and shares the concerns of Vermonters who fear global shortages of the lifesaving prescription drugs they need.”
Story Written by Dan D’Ambrosio, Burlington Free Press