Drug Importation in Connecticut: An Overview
Synopsis:
The Connecticut legislature has not yet advanced bills that have been introduced to legalized importation of drugs from Canada. However, in 2019 the state budgeted funds for the Department of Consumer Protection to hire a project manager to submit a request for approval for a Canadian Prescription Drug Importation Program to the federal Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Current status:
Budget documents indicate that Connecticut will be submitting an importation plan to the Department of Health and Human Services in 2020 or 2021.
How should we evaluate this program?
The program hasn't started yet, or even been designed, so there's no way to measure whether it saved money or kept patients safe, both promises made at the time of passage. However, the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act contains requirements for safety requirements built into any such program.
Official actions and statements
Connecticut has made no official statements regarding importation.
Background / resources
Learn more about
- The Drug Importation Debate
- Fake Medicine in Connecticut
- The Importance of U.S. Closed Drug Supply Chain
Testimony Opposing Importation
- Testimony of Shabbir Imber Safdar, PSM Executive Director at Connecticut's Health Care Affordability Informational Forum, November 14, 2019
Op-eds from the Experts
In this editorial in The Globe and Mail, Ujjal Dosanjh, formerly a federal minister of health and a premier of British Columbia, explains that drug manufacturers have no incentive to sell Canadian provinces more medicine to fill the needs of U.S. residents. Importation will lead to drug shortages in Canada and counterfeit drug trafficking to the U.S.
This editorial by David C. Rosenbaum and Dara Jospé was published in the Financial Post on January 16, 2020. Rosenbaum is a partner of the law firm Fasken. Jospé is an associate for the same company.
This editorial by Rosie Rivera was published in The Salt Lake Tribune on December 3, 2019. Rivera is the sheriff of Salt Lake County.
This editorial by C. Michael White was published in The Conversation on September 27, 2019. White is a professor and head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice for the University of Connecticut.
This editorial by Dana McDougall was published in The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier on August 26, 2019. Mr. McDougall, Pharm.D., BCPS, is a pharmacist with the Covenant Cancer Treatment Center in Waterloo, Iowa.
This editorial by Dr. Charles S. Shaver was published in The Hamilton Spectator on August 11, 2019. Dr. Shaver i a practicing physician in Ottawa. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Shaver is also past chair of the section on general internal medicine of the Ontario Medical Association.
This editorial by Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D. appeared in Forbes on August 7, 2019. Dr. Winegarden is the Managing Editor for EconoSTATS and a senior Fellow in Business and Economics at the Pacific Research Institute.
In this
In this July 31, 2019 blog post on the Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) website, CAGW Director of Health and Science Policy Elizabeth Wright questions the questions the effectiveness and safety of government importation schemes.
This editorial by Adam Fein and Dirk Rodgers was published in Stat News on July 11, 2019. In it, Fein and Rodgers warn that plans by states to create drug importation programs will open new pathways for counterfeit drugs to enter the U.S. drug supply chain…