WASHINGTON House approves legislation on importing prescriptions

Prices may shrink, but the risk of counterfeit drugs will rise, some lawmakers say.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House has approved legislation allowing Americans to buy prescription medicine abroad, voting 243-186 after a clash that pitted the hope of lower prices against the fear of counterfeit drugs.
The vote early today marked a defeat for the pharmaceutical industry, which spends millions lobbying Congress and was repeatedly criticized by lawmakers in both parties for putting profits ahead of patients.
"It's not about safety, it's about money," said conservative Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., practically hissing the word. "There's a woman ... who's dying of breast cancer," he added. "How do you tell her when she goes to buy tamoxifen that she can't afford it but she could go right across the border to Canada and get it for one-sixth or one-seventh the cost."
"The country is going to be flooded with unsafe pharmaceutical counterfeits, overage pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals that don't preserve and protect the safety of our citizens," countered Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who has long worked on drug issues.
Next step
The vote sent the bill to the Senate, and House supporters hoped it would be incorporated, as well, in any final compromise on Medicare prescription drug legislation.
But the chances of that appeared to dim even as the debate unfolded on the House floor, when 53 senators announced their opposition to any change in the current law which allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to decide whether importation would be safe.
Among those signing a letter on the issue were Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Don Nickles, R-Okla., both of whom are part of the group hoping to craft a final Medicare bill this fall.
Congress has approved legislation twice before dealing with the drug importation issue, but both times said the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services would first have to certify that the drugs would be safe. Neither Donna Shalala, who served under former President Clinton, nor Tommy Thompson, who holds office under President Bush, was willing to do so.
This time, the bill backed by Republican Reps. Gil Gutknecht of Minnesota, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri and Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, ordered HHS to set up a system to allow importation of FDA-approved drugs from FDA-approved facilities in Canada, the European Union and seven other nations.
The measure also would require imported medicine to be shipped in anti-tampering and anti-counterfeiting packaging.
Even so, the Bush administration issued a statement calling the bill "dangerous legislation."
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