The United States’ secure medicine supply chain protects American patients.

Importing drugs to save Americans money is not a new idea. It’s something we’ve tried before, but effort after effort has shown that importing drugs manufactured and sold outside of the American regulatory system is impractical and dangerous.

When Illinois set up a state-run importation program in 2004, they spent a great deal of money on inspecting pharmacies overseas but were still unable to ensure that the foreign pharmacies that were distributing medicine to Illinois residents were safe. In fact, they could not even ensure that the entities distributing the medicines were the same as the ones they had inspected.

In 2013, the Maine legislature passed a (now-overturned) law allowing residents to import drugs from licensed pharmacies in Australia, Canada, Northern Ireland, New Zealand or the United Kingdom, but unlicensed distributors like Canada Drug Center were actually selling medicines from Turkey, India and Mauritius, and purchased drugs were found to contain sub-therapeutic levels of medication.

Between 2009 and 2013, when Medical Device King imported IUDs and cancer drugs to increase their profits, they introduced counterfeit medicines into the American drug supply. Some of the fake Avastin they imported contained mold and water instead of lifesaving treatment and posed a serious threat to the stage 4 cancer patients the medicine was supposed to help.

Drug importation supporters think that drugs that are purchased from “safe” countries such as Canada and Britain are subject to strict regulations and oversight. This is a dangerous misconception. For example, if pharmaceuticals are not earmarked for Canadian citizens, they are not subject to the Canadian government’s safety regulations. Drug exporters residing in Canada can sell non-Canadians medicines from anywhere in the world. Drugs imported from Europe have not proven to be consistently safe, either.

Americans can take confidence in medicine purchased from licensed pharmacies in the United State because in this country every entity involved in pharmaceuticals, from manufacturer to dispensing, is regulated to create a closed, secure, trackable drug supply. Drugs bought from licensed pharmacies in the U.S. are FDA-approved and safety reviewed and are included in FDA safety recalls.

Preserving the United States’ secure medicine supply chain is the best way to keep American patients safe.