Stocking up the medicine cabinet is compelling more and more law-abiding citizens to break federal law and import their prescription drugs from Canada and elsewhere. The trend is illegal, and without the proper safeguards, it could compromise the integrity of the U.S. drug supply and put their personal well-being at risk.
As many of us know all too well, prescription medicines don’t come cheap. After all, it can take years and years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop revolutionary and life saving pharmaceuticals. But the problem is, Americans seem to be paying more than their fair share of the cost to finance the research and development of the wonder drugs on the market.
And Iowans have made it loud and clear that they find the enormous price differential between medicines purchased in the United States and Canada especially exasperating. Consider a popular medication for heartburn and ulcers. It costs consumers about $120 for 28 20-milligram capsules if purchased in the U.S. The same prescription filled in Canada costs $51.
Canadians can pay from 30 to 300 percent less for the same brand-name prescription drug sold in the U.S. Enough is enough. Excessive prices can force individuals and families with limited means to make tough choices. Like choosing between buying groceries or filling a prescription. Or taking less than the prescribed amount to make the medicine last longer.
Some states and local governments are attempting to offer programs for residents to buy prescription drugs from Canada. Organized bus trips to Canadian pharmacies and a booming mail order business reveal the obvious. American consumers want access to more affordable medicine. I’m working to make it legal for them to do so while also providing quality assurance of the products coming in to the United States.
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I introduced legislation in April to make it legal for Americans to import their prescription drugs from Canada. I consider this a free trade issue to let competition in the global marketplace leverage a lower price. If Americans are able to access lower cost pharmaceuticals outside the United States, drug companies will be forced to re-evaluate their pricing strategy. Frankly, the pharmaceutical industry would no longer be able to gouge consumers in the U.S.
My bill would make it legal immediately for Americans to fill their prescriptions in licensed Canadian pharmacies. Eventually barriers also would be lifted to legally import prescription medicines from Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
The Food and Drug Administration for years has resisted pressure to grant its seal of approval and certify the safety of imported drugs. My legislation would require federal regulators to implement a safe system to register and inspect Canadian suppliers within 90 days of enactment. Fees paid by Canadian exporters would pay for the FDA to set up and run a new safety regime that would allow individuals, pharmacies and drug wholesalers to buy qualified drugs from registered foreign exporters for import to the U.S.
To register, a foreign exporter must demonstrate compliance with safety measures, submit to the jurisdiction of U.S. courts and take other steps to verify the safety of its drugs.
And if pharmaceutical companies should decide to circumvent importation by withholding sales to Canada or through other means, my legislation would take away the federal tax deduction for their advertising expenses. This would not prevent drug companies from communicating with consumers through paid advertising. However, their ads no longer would be subsidized by U.S. taxpayers. On the other hand, if drug manufacturers don’t stand in the way, my bill would increase their research and development tax credit by 20 percent.
Americans and people throughout the world today enjoy a better quality of life long into retirement thanks in part to the availability of groundbreaking pharmaceuticals. I’m working to make sure Americans have more affordable access to future wonder drugs by opening the doors to competition in the global pharmaceutical industry.