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
This editorial by retired DEA agent Douglas Hebert was published in The Arizona Capital Times ,on June 27, 2019. In it, Hebert explains how drug importation programs will help organized crime expand their $200 billion-a-year counterfeit pharmaceutical industry into the U.S., at the expense of Americans.
In this editorial, which was published in Crain’s New York Business on June 19, 2019, Canadian law enforcement veteran Don Bell explains that the New York Legislature’s effort to establish a wholesale prescription drug importation program, is “a gigantic loophole that criminals will pounce on to traffic counterfeit drugs into the state.”
In this editorial, which was published by the Fraser Institute on June 13, 2019, economist Dr. Kristina Acri argues against importation, concluding: “Diverting drugs meant for Canadian patients to the U.S. through state importation schemes will create shortages for Canadian patients and increase pressure on potentially unscrupulous suppliers to source drugs from wherever they can, opening the door to counterfeiters.”
This editorial by Guy Anthony was published in the Orlando Sentinel on June 12, 2019. Anthony, President and CEO of Black, Gifted & Whole, a nonprofit focused on issues surrounding black, queer men, warns that drug importation will open up “a market for dangerous, counterfeit drugs” that will make it harder for people to live with HIV and other complex illnesses.
This editorial by Nigel Rawson was published in The Hills Times on June 9, 2019. Dr. Rawson, president of Eastlake Research Group, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, and an affiliated scholar with the Canadian Health Policy Institute, warns that Canada would run out of necessary medicine if U.S. states begin drug importation programs…
Former DEA agent Doug Herber wrote this editorial, which was published on May 31, 2019 in the White Mountain Independent. In it, he writes that drug importation will cause “patients [to] unwittingly purchase foreign counterfeit drugs disguised as low-level medication, unaware of the dangers, end up as an overdose statistic. “
This editorial by Holly Strom and Kenneth Schell published in U.S. News and World Report on May 28, 2019 warns states considering drug importation that doing so will not keep costs down and also poses a safety risk to patients…
In this editorial, which was published in The Bend Bulletin on May 21, 2019, Canadian law enforcement veteran Don Bell explains why Oregonians can not rely on Canada for safe prescription drugs.
Dozens of the most highly qualified law enforcement officials and former, senior staff at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration have conducted in-depth analyses that show Canadian drug importation will lead to a massive increase in counterfeit drugs entering the U.S.
In this editorial published in The Hill on May 12, 2019, Brooklyn Roberts, the director of the health and human services task force at the American Legislative Exchange Council, discusses the risks of drug importation:
“The safety of our prescription drugs relies on a closed system where drugs can be traced to manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies and patients. Opening that system to foreign drugs would allow the potential for dangerous and potentially deadly medicines to land in the hands of the American public.”