Saturday, July 17, 2004
Political momentum for reimportation is building.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- Several years ago, the Bush administration's opposition to legalizing the purchase of cheaper drugs from Canada was so intense that Andy Troszok, of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, couldn't imagine meeting with White House officials about making the practice legal.
Even less likely, Troszok thought, was getting pharmacy benefit managers -- the companies that manage drug benefits for U.S. employers -- to consider buying medications from Canadian suppliers, where they're 30 percent to 60 percent cheaper.
But in recent weeks, Troszok, now president of the group representing Canada's Internet pharmacies, has held discussions with both groups. While the meetings were brief and exploratory, they showed that the political momentum behind reimportation is opening eyes and doors that appeared locked just months ago.
Reimportation, the practice of allowing Americans to purchase U.S. drugs from Canada and other countries, is now backed or conditionally endorsed by a growing number of Republicans who find the idea appealing, especially in an election year.
Thinks it will pass
Even Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, a longtime foe, concedes that some form of legalized reimportation is imminent. "I think Congress is going to pass it," he told reporters recently.
Among Republicans reversing their earlier opposition are Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. Republican congressional candidates backing reimportation include Stan Thompson in Iowa, Bill Manger in New York and Tom Buford in Kentucky.
Minnesota and Illinois already have launched reimportation programs, as have Springfield, Mass., and Burlington, Vt.
As resistance weakens, the debate is shifting from whether to legalize reimportation to how it might be implemented. Thomas M. Ryan, the chairman of the CVS Pharmacy chain, based in Woonsocket, R.I., in May stunned a federal task force studying the issue by endorsing a plan to have retail pharmacies sell foreign drugs imported by U.S. wholesalers.
While no one sees reimportation as the final solution to high U.S. drug prices, it's plainly getting harder for opponents to make a case against it without a better alternative.
'Significant'
"We think it's significant that two years ago, we couldn't even get a PBM [pharmacy benefit manager] to talk to us, and now we're working with three" on possible drug purchases, said Troszok, whose group represents Canada's major cross-border Internet and mail-order pharmacies. He refused to say which pharmacy benefit managers his group is negotiating with.
Phil Blando, the spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, a trade group representing the pharmacy benefit manager industry, said he had no information on whether any member companies were seeking drugs from Canada.
"But I don't think it's entirely surprising, given the level of debate and interest in this issue, that you might have perhaps, a regional PBM, a smaller PBM or maybe a national PBM looking at this," he said.
The Food and Drug Administration allows U.S. residents to buy individual prescription drugs from other countries, but it forbids the sale of foreign drugs for commercial purposes. That means pharmacy benefit managers could be violating U.S. law by importing drugs from Canada, said Jeff Trewhitt, a spokesman for the Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the leading drug industry trade group.