Attorney General Salazar Urges Lifting Ban on Importation of Prescription Drugs

Denver—Attorney General Ken Salazar and 19 fellow attorneys general urged the federal government to take steps to allow for the safe importation of prescription drugs to help relieve the financial burden of millions of Americans and state governments as a result of the explosive growth in the cost of prescription medications.

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, the attorneys general request that the Secretary exercise his authority under existing law to permit the importation of prescription drugs.

The attorneys general propose the following importation procedure for state-administered pharmaceutical programs:

• Either appoint the States as licensed wholesalers or allow the States to contract with licensed wholesalers for the importation of FDA-approved prescription drugs from Canada. In turn, whoever the licensed wholesalers are would contract directly with licensed Canadian pharmacies which would be required to meet safety standards set by the health departments of the individual State. All prescription drug shipments would be made directly to the State. The FDA itself has suggested using licensed wholesalers as a way to decrease the incidence of counterfeit prescription drug shipments.
• The States would work with Health Canada and the FDA, both of who have systems to ensure the safety and quality of prescription drugs, to inspect Canadian pharmacies and exchange drug plant inspection information.
• All drugs would be manufactured in FDA-approved facilities and imported into the United States from Canada in their original packaging. All drugs would be tracked using advanced counterfeiting technologies. In addition, steps would be taken to ensure that the FDA’s tracking system works in conjunction with Canada’s own comprehensive labeling system, which includes the issuance of a unique drug identification number for all prescription drugs that are commercially sold within Canada.

“I support lifting the federal ban on importation of prescription drugs, as just one way to address the high cost of prescription drugs that Americans and their governments are paying,” Attorney General Salazar said. “This is just one approach to doing so. I believe the plan being proposed by a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators is also worth exploring, and any other ideas to allow the safe importation of prescription drugs.”

Under the plan being proposed by Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), licensed pharmacists and wholesalers could import drugs from Canada (and a year later, from certain other countries. Importers would have to document the chain of custody using new technology to deter counterfeiters. Individuals could import 90-day supplies of medicine from Canada for personal use from Canadian pharmacies inspected and approved by the FDA. Additional powers would be established to punish drug companies that hinder or thwart imports of prescription drugs.

“Allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies—amazingly enough, expressly banned by Congress in last year’s Medicare overhaul law,” should also help drive down the costs of prescription drugs in the near term,” Salazar added. “The Department of Veterans Affairs has been able to successfully negotiate for lower drug prices.”

Attorneys General signatories to the letter are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin.